The Viscount Inn and Suites breakfast, In and Out Burger, beautiful weather, and the Luther series. All of these had been talked about for months and now the time had finally come. Fortunately, the baseball team is lucky enough to spend a week in Tucson, Arizona.

Getting to play 9 games in 8 days was a grind of a week but it was worth it. Let’s break it down game by game so everyone can hear all about the Beavers down in AZ.

The first two games we played were two seven inning games against Salem St.

Game 1: The man himself, Jake Hadaway, got the start for the Beavers. The Vikings got out to an early lead against the Beavers but after that he settled in for a strong outing to start the trip for the Beavers. It was a battle to the end but Pey Rey (Peyton Renning), Kendall Candor, and Harms all had great at bats that lead to RBI’s for the Beavers. The young gun, Gage Smart, came in to pitch for Jay. With the winning run at the plate, the freshman made a big time statement. He shut the door and secured the first win for the Beavers down in AZ.

Quick side note, this has to be one of the youngest teams I have played with. To you young guys on the team, cherish all these moments because the seasons go by faster than you think. Enough with the cliché statements, let’s get back to the action.

Game 2: With Keenan on the mound we got out to an early 1-0 lead. Long story short, they hit everything we threw at them and they found every hole on the field in the top of the fourth. Down 10 – 1 we weren’t going down without a fight. In the bottom of the inning Porter had to tell the pitcher, “sorry for hitting your ball so far Mr. Pitcher” as he rounded third base after the homerun he hit to bring it to 10-2. We added two more the next inning to make it 10-4. Salem held strong and ended up scoring three runs in the next two innings. The score was 13-4 going into the bottom of the 7th inning. Big Horse (Cale Ewald) lived up to his nickname with a monster three-run shot. We weren’t able to make the comeback so we suffered the loss 13-8. It was great to see that we never gave up.

Game 3: A nine inning game against Oberlin was on the schedule for us that day. Everything clicked for us. Jake Lewis came out and threw a gem. We had 5 stolen bases. Candor had 3 big RBI’s. Mr. Cool (Jayden Clark) came in and had two great innings of work. Nate Haveman came in for the last inning of work. S/O to him, we were all really happy to see him get his chance on the mound after working his tail off in the bullpen as a catcher. He closed the door and the 8-0 win for the Beavers was a great way to end the day.

Game 4: Carthage. We’ve got a history with them. Let’s just say we aren’t the biggest fans of each other. Especially to everyone that was in Arizona last year. So this was a big game. Let me tell you what, this was a roller coaster of a game. Also a coming out party for a few young guns on the team. Port came out hot and had two double and 3 RBI’s. Egan Bonde came out and did his job as the starter but a few bad hops and miscues led to his early exit from the game. (Still love you Egan, wasn’t your fault). The MVP in my book goes to Andy Bower though. Bower came in when we were down 5-1 and threw us four innings where he had six strikeouts and only four hits. The Beavers came up with a little ninth inning magic which was capped off by one of Port’s 2 doubles. Smart came in and once again shut the door for the comeback win!

Game 5: Kalamazoo had some drama surrounding their program coming into the game (you can google it if you are curious). When they stepped on the field, they were giants… They made us look tiny out there, but it didn’t matter. Blake Vande Hoef was on the bump for his first career start. He held his own and grinded out some much needed innings for us! Wags and Pey Rey had huge days at the plate! We got out to a huge lead and didn’t look back after that! S/O to my guy D-Mace for getting to chuck the last inning of the game. They didn’t stand a chance against him. D-Mace and I have been playing together since we were small so it was awesome seeing him come in to close the door. Beavers win 10-5!

Game 6: Oberlin again. Well… um… Kolby hit a ball really far over the left field fence. That’s about it. We lost 8-2.

The Luther Series: We played our first conference series down in Arizona. This was a huge series. We knew coming in this was going to be a dog fight and we were ready.

Game 1: Jake Freaking Hadaway. Showed up to the ball park and wasn’t having any of Luther. Went 7 innings and gave us a chance to win the game for him in the last three innings. Double by Hilgy and then back to back single by the Fargo Brothers (Paper and Wags) helped us secure a 4-2 lead. Gage came in for Jay and pitched outstanding (this seems to be a reoccurring theme and I am a HUGE fan). He shut them out the last two innings and we got our first conference win!

Game 2: The future PE, Biology teacher Jake Lewis was on the bump for the second game. I’m going to be honest. Personally, this was the greatest game I have ever seen J Lew pitch. He was in control the whole game, the offense gave him a solid lead and there was no looking back. Luther didn’t score a run until the 8th inning. By then it was too late. D-Mace came in for Jake. When D-Mace is on (99.99999% of the time) TRUST ME, the dude is so hard to hit against. He sealed the deal for us to go up 2-0 in the three game series against Luther.

Game 3: We were hungry for a sweep and we came out of the gates hot. We were up 4-0 by the end of the third inning. Keenan fought through his innings that he pitched. But some defensive miscues cost us the lead late in the game. Credit Luther for hanging in there and not giving up. They ended up taking game three from us but we still took the series from them 2-1.

The trip ended with a big conference series win! We packed up, showered and headed back to the airport for our 11:45 pm flight out of Phoenix.

S/O to our athletic trainer for the week K-Bish (Kathryn Bishop). She was there when Mike almost lost an eyeball and whenever anyone else needed anything. Including team mom by sewing up the guy’s pants that had ripped.

Another shout out to our manager Taryn Kline, who paid for her own flight down to Arizona with the team! If that isn’t dedication then I don’t know what is. We are thankful for everything that you do for us.
Coaches: Thank you for everything you have taught me in my career here as a Beaver. Thank you for driving us around in Arizona. From all of us players we are extremely thankful to have all of you coaching us!
Parents: To the parents that made the trip, thank you so much. It is pretty awesome when our parents have to sit in the opposing teams stands because our stands are packed full. You parents help create an awesome atmosphere for us players. A big shout out for you guys!

Thank you for everything Tucson.

-Cammy J