The Collegio Pittsburg's student voice since 1916
Related Articles
The Pitt State baseball team played three consecutive home games against Southwest Baptist from Friday, Feb. 22 to Sunday, Feb. 24. The Gorillas won the first match 9-6 but lost on Saturday 6-7. The team battled back to win the last game of the weekend 13-3.
According to head coach Bob Fornelli, the team recovered from the loss on Saturday well and managed to come back and win the last game on Sunday.
“We had some good moments and some bad moments,” Fornelli said. “We had an opportunity to sweep the weekend and we let one get away Saturday. (We) had a 6-3 lead and had a chance to tack on some runs, (but we) did not get it done. They tied it in the ninth, won it in the tenth but I was proud of our guys from coming back and playing really good on Sunday.”
Fornelli would like to see the team ride the starting pitch further into the game.
“I thought our starting pitching for the weekend was pretty good,” Fornelli said. “We would like to see it go deeper in the game but they all gave us an opportunity to win each game.”
In the game agaisnt Southwest Baptist on Friday, senior Reece Garvie and sophomore Marc Gonzalez each scored two runs and junior Levi McLaughlin scored one. Garvie and Gonzalez each had two hits and McLaughlin and sophomore Blain Olmeier each added one. Garvie and Gonzalez each had two RBIs and McLaughlin had one. Senior Caleb Cox had 10 putouts, junior Ty Herrenbruck had five, junior Tyler Pittman had four, and senior John Oliver had two. Oliver made four assists and Cox and Pittman each added one.
In the second game, Garvie scored two runs and junior Clint Allen scored one. Allen had two hits and Garvie, Cox, and Herrenbruck each had one. Garvie had two RBIs and Allen added one. Junior Greyson Pinkett had 13 putouts, Herrenbruck had nine, Allen had three, and senior Connor Lungwitz had one. Lungwitz made three assists, Pinkett added two, and Herrenbruck made one.
In the third game on Sunday, junior Chaz Burgess scored three runs, senior Alex Achtermann scored two, and McLaughlin scored one. Achtermann had four hits, Burgess had three, and Gonzalez and McLaughlin each had one. Achtermann, Burgess, and McLaughlin each had two RBIs. Herrenbruck had 10 putouts, McLaughlin and Cox each had four, and Gonzalez had one. Gonzalez made six assists and McLaughlin made four.
There were a couple players who stood out to Fornelli this past weekend.
“Tanner Lane was really good this weekend both Friday and Sunday,” Fornelli said. “(He) threw the ball really well. Alex Achtermann had a really good Sunday. (He) swung the bat well and hopefully he can continue that.”
The Gorillas will be working on offense and hitting during practice leading up to their next matches.
“Well it is going to be a short week because with the weather, we are probably going to play on Thursday,” Fornelli said. “… We just have to continue to work on offense and continue to hit because we are going to need to score runs to win baseball games.”
Fornelli hopes to see the team play consistently.
“(In the next couple of games, I hope we) just play the right way, compete each and every day, and be consistent,” Fornelli said.
The next baseball game is Thursday, Feb. 28 against the Washburn University Ichabods at 3 p.m. at the Al Ortolani Field. The Gorillas will play Washburn again Friday, Feb. 29 at the Al Ortolani Field. The first game is set to start at 1 p.m. and the second game will begin at 4 p.m.
