Gorillas sweep Bearcats

Michael Admire Sports Writer Confidence is back in the Pitt State Gorillas’ lineup after winning three straight against conference opponent Southwest Baptist. The Gorillas and Bearcats split a double header last Friday, and then weather pushed Saturday’s twin bill back to Monday, March 28. Led by timely hitting and Scott Brady’s complete game, the Gorillas swept their first double header of the season. “Well, I thought that we came out strong as a team,” said true freshman Evan Thomas. “We just came out and executed on offense extremely well today. Better than we have all season, I think.” In game one, the Gorillas leaned on another solid outing by Ryan Sorell. He pitched two and…

Gorillas mauled by Panthers: PSU falls to Drury

Garett McCullough Sports Writer The Gorilla softball team took two losses against the Drury Panthers on Wednesday at home. After an 8-2 loss, the Gorillas lost a hard-fought second game 5-3. Tiffany Brown took the loss in the first game and Samantha Grove was credited with the loss in the second. The Panthers were in complete control of the first game. Brittany Smith jacked two homeruns for the Panthers and Amber Hayden added one of her own. Erin Eddy hit her second triple of the year and Kreslee Ketcham went 2-3 for the Gorillas. The Gorillas strode out to a 3-0 first-inning lead as the first four batters reached base successfully. They held this lead…

Golfers finish fourth at invitational

Tyler Smith Sports Writer The Pitt State men’s golf team had a full schedule this past week, competing against seven schools and finishing fourth overall at the William Woods Invitational on March 28 and 29. During the two-day stint, the Gorillas racked up scores of 310 and 302 during two rounds, giving them a total of 612, eight shots back from McKendree University in third place. Junior Garret Fowler was happy overall with his performance after posting a score of 76-74. “I am very pleased with the way I played this week,” Fowler said. “I had a rough week in California and it was nice to finally turn it around and post some good numbers.”…

Sorell’s slings help shut out Southern

Michael Admire Sports Writer Senior Ryan Sorell pitched seven complete innings, giving up only four hits and striking out four batters to secure his first win of the season. Weather showed signs of spring Wednesday, but the heavy wind blowing out to left posed a potential problem for the pitchers. “I think the wind helped me out today,” Sorell said. Sorell was throwing his sinker very well, which he partially credited to the heavy gusts, forcing Southern into 10 groundouts. He also got help by Pitt State’s offense when it had two three-run innings. Taylor Sibala, Ryan Reddick and Jeremy Graves all have two runs-batted-in (RBIs) apiece, leading Pittsburg State University to victory over Missouri…

Softball splits home series against Jets

Garett McCullough Sport Writer Mental toughness was the difference for the Pitt State softball players against the 2-15 Newman Jets Wednsday in the Gorillas’ second home stand of the season. After a loss in the first game of the double-header, which was plagued with mistakes, the Gorillas took the second behind the strong pitching performance of freshman Jessica Barnes (1-0). The first game ended with a score of 12-5 in the Jets’ favor, and although the final score didn’t reflect it, this game went into extra innings, ending in the eighth. After tying the game in the bottom of the seventh, Pitt State gave up seven runs in the top of the eighth as errors…

A leap for mankind:

Senior jumper takes unorthodox journey to PSU Tyler Smith Sports Writer Kiara Jones has always excelled at track and field competitions, but after four years in a Gorilla uniform he now has the reputation and awards to prove it to the rest of the world. Along with being named a seven-time All-American over the course of his career, Jones was also the 2010 NCAA Division-II runner up in the triple-jump national competition. The national spotlight was not a new stage for Jones after 2009, when he placed third in the nation in both the indoor and outdoor competitions. After injuring his hamstring at the 2009 conference championships, which could have possibly ended his career as…

Well – seasoned

Baseball coach surpasses 1,000th game Michael Admire Sports Writer Game after game for a record 21st season, Steve Bever has led the baseball team as its head coach. Last weekend, against Emporia State, Bever hit another milestone when he coached his 1,000th game, and yesterday the Gorillas added another victory to his 528 wins. “What? I didn’t even know about it,” Bever said. “That’s where all this gray hair comes from. Dealing with college kids.” Other than Bever’s 1,000th game, there was not much else for the Gorillas to rejoice about this past weekend.  Eighth-ranked Emporia State Hornets swept Pitt State in a four-game series to extend their undefeated season to 7-0. Pitt State had…

Split City

Softball goes 1-1 over weekend, moves to 2-7 Garett McCullough Sports Writer After being outscored 47-9 in their first six games, the PSU softball team picked up its second win of the season at the Teri Zenner Memorial Tournament in Joplin, Sunday, March 6.  The win came in the Gorillas’ first game of the trip against their former MIAA foe, the Missouri University of Science and Technology, 8-7, followed by a close 5-4 loss to Northeastern State University later that afternoon. As usual, two right-handed pitchers toed the rubber in this game, with Amber Duncan getting the nod for the Missouri S&T Lady Miners and Pitt State’s Samantha Grove starting for the Gorillas. Grove, who…

DII sports underpriced, underrated

Jake Faber Sports Editor I spent the past weekend watching some of the best basketball that I have seen in quite a while, and the best part was that it cost me around the price of a movie ticket. Instead of pulling out my wallet to sit through some ridiculous animated gnome film, I sat two rows up at the MIAA Conference Tournament in Downtown Kansas City, where a two-game pass ran $15. And if you had a few free days to spare, as most college students do, $50 would get you a ticket to every game on the schedule, which meant that you would get to watch a total of 16 men’s and women’s…

Down in round 2

Gorillas tame Lions; fall to No. 1 Bearcats Tyler Smith Sports Writer The women’s basketball team advanced to the second round of the MIAA conference tournament this past weekend with a big win in overtime against longtime rival Missouri Southern on Friday at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. The 61-57 win over Southern was an emotional one, after the Gorillas played their last four games without assistant coach Tisharria Huggins, who died last month in a car accident. And as they did for the remainder of the regular season, the Gorillas sported warm-up shirts with the initials T.H. in memory of Huggins before the games started, and came out with an intensity that was…