Baseball Weekend

We’re just minutes from the first pitch this weekend. It’s up to the baseball team to kick the streak of losses from earlier in the week. Softball lost. Baseball lost. Women’s basketball lost. Men’s basketball lost. And to make it even worse, all of those were very close games with losses coming in extra innings and the last second.

So, now the baseball team (3-4) is the first to head back onto the field, and they have traveled to 5-3 Nevada for the three-game series.

The Bears scored 12+ runs and coasted in two of the wins and lost two games by just a single run.

A quick look at the team:
Pitchers —
7 Bears have pitched more than three innings with only Friday’s starter, Michael Wild, reaching double figures in innings. Wild has been solid so far, and so has Bobby Pritchet who’s currently struck out 13 in only 8.2 innings. The problem with the staff isn’t allowing opponents to hit the ball – just a .266 average for opposing hitters. It’s the number of free passes courtesy of being hit by pitches. The Bears have hit 21 batters in only 7 games. Getting that under control and hoping for Reese Cross and Logan Ariola to break out of their early-season funk is going to be key.

Batters —
Leading returner, Tye Throneberry, has been in a funk of his own. He had a decent day against ORU, going 1-for-2 with a double and two sac bunts. But it looks like he’s going to be on the bench to start Friday’s game. Blake Roberts has certainly picked up the slack so far, improving on his .271 average from a year ago to sit currently at .478. Quickly making a name for himself is freshman Ethan Harris (.438 avg). He’s started every game so far (one of only two players to do that) and leads the team in hits (14), rbi (7) and is just behind Roberts in runs scored (7). Four more Bears (Fuller, Noble, Washington and Pair) are hitting over .300. And all but Roberts are newcomers to the team.

It could be a good year if some of the expected guys step up and pitch/hit like they did last year. It’s hard to gauge how good this Nevada team is or how much will learn from the series this early in the season. They have two starters with sub-.100 eras. They have four guys hitting .400 or better. But, it’s looks like if we can get to their bullpen, we might be able to do some damage.