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Pittsburg State University’s baseball team opened the 2019 season with three separate road games in Edmond, Oklahoma this past weekend from Friday, Feb. 1- Sunday, Feb. 3.
The Gorillas fell to Oklahoma Christian University (5-6) on Friday, Feb. 1. On Saturday, Feb. 2, the team went up against Southwestern Oklahoma State University and lost (4-7). The last game of the weekend was against Southeastern Oklahoma State University on Sunday, Feb. 3 and the team battled back to win the match (8-7).
Head coach Bob Fornelli believes this past weekend brought the guys closer together as a team despite losing two out of the three matches they played.
“I think we hit okay in some situations… But I think the biggest thing is we kind of got a little identity as who we are,” Fornelli said. “We have a long way to go but we do not like to go 1-2 and never will, but I thought we got better this weekend for it.”
Senior Caleb Cox stood out to Fornelli during the first three games of the season. During the last game of the weekend against Southeastern Oklahoma State, Cox made a two-run home run to tie the score 7-7. He also provided the game-winning hit securing Pitt State’s victory of 8-7 against Southeastern Oklahoma State.
“… Probably the guy with the biggest impact for the weekend was Caleb Cox,” Fornelli said. “He did a great job catching (and) provided great energy. (He) really swung the bat well.”
During the matches, Fornelli noticed a few minor errors that the team needed to improve before their next match and plans to incorporate those things into practice before going up against their next opponent.
“Well, we are going to get an opportunity to practice (on) Tuesday (Feb. 5), Wednesday (Feb. 6), and Thursday (Feb. 7) before we play (on) Friday (Feb. 8) and just kind of clean up some little things that we were not very good at this weekend,” Fornelli said.
The next three games are all home matches against Colorado State-Pueblo here in Pittsburg at the Al Ortolani Field. The first game is set to start at 3 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 8. Game two will be on Saturday, Feb. 9 at 1 p.m. The third and final game against Colorado State is set to start at 12:00pm on Sunday, Feb. 10.
“Just to come out and play the right way. (We need to) feed off of this weekend, come out and do the little things. We are going to play a very good team (from) Colorado-Pueblo. I think they scored 60 runs in three games this (past) weekend,” Fornelli said. “So, they are going to be a formidable opponent if we do not come out and play things will not go well but I think we will be ready.”
The Gorillas end their first week of the 2019 season with an overall record of 1-2.
