The baseball team played a home series from Thursday, April 18 to Saturday, April 20 at the Al Ortolani Field. The team lost the first match Thursday (3-7) but bounced back Friday with a victory (7-3) and continued that momentum to take the final game of the weekend (14-10).
Head coach Bob Fornelli believes the team played well over the course of the last week, including the match against Arkansas Tech Tuesday, April 16 in Springdale.
“We had a really good week,” Fornelli said. “We beat a very good Arkansas Tech team on Tuesday. (We won) two out of three against a team that was one game ahead of us… so overall we had a good week.”
According to Fornelli the team excelled in a couple areas.
“I thought our hitting really came along this week,” Fornelli said. “Guys step up, Tyson Cushman and John Oliver had a very good week for us, so I think offensively we had a good week.”
According to Fornelli, the team may not have executed everything well but that did not stop them from winning.
“…Our guys are doing the right thing,” Fornelli said. “We did not pitch overly well this weekend but that is what has kind of got us to where we are because we pitch good, so we are going to have those days. Our offense was able to over come it.”
In the first match against Missouri Western on Thursday, sophomore Blain Ohlmeier and junior Greyson Pinkett each had one run. Ohlmeier, Pinkett, and junior Chaz Burgess all had one hit apiece. Pinkett had a total of 11 putouts, junior Ty Herrenbruck added seven, Ohlmeier had three, and senior John Oliver added one. Oliver also contributed four assists.
In game two against Missouri Western, Ohlmeier, Pinkett, Burgess, and senior Alex Achtermann all had one run apiece. Achtermann had two hits and Ohlmeier, Pinkett, and Burgess all had one apiece. Pinkett had two RBIs and Ohlmeier added one. Burgess had a total of eight putouts, Pinkett added six, junior Tyler Pittman had five, and Oliver had two. Oliver added three assists.
In the third and final game of the series against Missouri Western, Oliver, junior Tyson Cushman, and senior Caleb Cox all had two runs apiece and Ohlmeier had one. Cushman had three hits, Oliver and Cox each had two apiece, and Ohlmeier had one. Oliver had three RBIs, Cushman had two, and Cox had one. Achtermann had nine putouts, Pinkett and Pittman each had four, and Cushman had one. Cushman added three assists, Pinkett had two, and Achtermann had one.
A couple of players stood out to Fornelli in the matches.
“…John Oliver (and) Tyson Cushman both had really good offensive week so I would say those two guys (stood out to me),” Fornelli said.
The team’s next series is against Missouri Southern from Friday, April 26 to Sunday, April 28 in Joplin.
“We get a week off of just practice and then we got to Missouri Southern which they are on top of the conference and we have to be ready to play,” Fornelli said.