The baseball team won two out of three games against Northwest Missouri State University (NWMSU) this past weekend from Friday, March 15 to Sunday, March 17. They won the first game (10-0) Friday and the second game Saturday (3-2) but lost the third and final game of the weekend Sunday (1-9).
Over spring break, the team played a series against Lindenwood from Friday, March 9 to Monday, March 11. The team lost the first game (4-7) but won the second (13-2) and third (5-2) games.
Head coach Bob Fornelli believes while the team played well, they still need to work on sweeping the series.
“Well they played great on Friday…,” Fornelli said. “(It was) maybe one of our best games of the year. Saturday, we found a way to win late. They kind of gave it to us, had two errors but we stayed with it and gave us an opportunity to have a chance to win. Today (Sunday, March 17) we did not play very good. We do not want to be satisfied with winning the series. We need to find a way to sweep the series. Our attitude, our effort was not good enough to be a good team today.”
In the first game against NWMSU, junior Chaz Burgess and Senior Alex Achtermann each scored two runs and junior Clint Allen scored one. Burgess had four hits and Achtermann, Allen, and junior Ty Herrenbruck each had two each. Herrenbruck had three RBIs, Achtermann had two, and Burgess and Allen each had one. Herrenbruck had nine putouts and junior Levi McLaughlin, senior Caleb Cox, and junior Tyler Pittman each had four. McLaughlin added five assists and Herrenbruck had one.
In the second game, Herrenbruck scored one run. Burgess, Allen, Herrenbruck, and freshman Quin Reasoner each had one hit. Herrenbruck had two RBIs. Cox had 10 putouts, Burgess and Pittman each had four, and junior Tyson Cushman had two. Cushman also added four assists.
Achtermann and senior Brad Kinsey stood out to Fornelli this past weekend at the games on Friday and Saturday.
“The first two days we pitched pretty good…,” Fornelli said. “Brad Kinsey got a chance to be the player of the week. He really pitched well… So those two were the highlights of the weekend.”
In the first game against Northwest Missouri on Friday, the team won without NWMSU scoring any points.
“…Again, we came out and played all aspects of the game,” Fornelli said. “We pitched, played defense, and really swung the bats well so that is how you are supposed to play. This team needs to be more consistent to be special and we just have not shown that yet.”
Fornelli hopes for the team to sweep the series when they go against their next opponent Central Missouri.
“…We have a big series at Central Oklahoma, so we need to be more like Friday and less like Sunday to be successful so hopefully we will come out and play well,” Fornelli said.
The baseball team’s next series is against Central Missouri in Edmond, Oklahoma. The first game is set to begin at 5 p.m. Friday, March 22. Game two will be Saturday, March 23 at 2 p.m. and the third and final game of the series will be Sunday, March 24 at 1p.m.