Bailey Schafbuch | Sports Co-Editor
The Buena Vista University (BVU) baseball team opened its 2013 season over the weekend on a road trip to St. Louis, Mo., where it faced three teams and came away 2-1 to start the year.
“From an offensive standpoint, this was the best opening weekend we’ve had in a long time. We had 41 hits on the weekend, which was a little bit of a surprise that we came out swinging the bat so well. We got a lot of pitchers some experience, and most of them did really, really well,” Head Baseball Coach Steve Eddie said.
After weather postponements and cancellations, the Beavers started play on Sunday against North Park University, where BVU came out on top, 8-7.
“We have great team unity and showed that all weekend battling through all the games we played. It was cold and we had to be mentally prepared hitting and defensively,” junior infielder Ryan Titman said.
In the game, the Beavers combined for 16 total hits. The game’s two key hitters were first baseman, junior Joe Paletta, and junior second baseman, Weston Foxx. Paletta’s hitting included a double to open the fifth inning that started the Beavers five-run inning, the biggest of the game. Foxx added three hits and scored two runs in the game.
Junior John Ringblom, who pitched five innings, was the Beaver starting pitcher for the North Park game, and he got relief from freshman Kendall Hazel and senior Griffin Hatten before sophomore Jake Bjorkgren came in as relief.
The Beavers then played two games on Monday, one against #11 Webster University on the field in Sauget, Ill., and then a second back across the river in St. Louis against Washington University. The Beavers upset Webster, beating them 7-5, but fell short in the afternoon against Wash U, getting edged 7-4 in spite of a ninth inning burst.
In the Webster game, the Beavers were first on the scoreboard in the fourth inning, scoring two runs, but Webster came right back in the bottom of the inning to take the lead 3-2. Webster held the lead and added another run to it until the seventh when the Beavers scored five runs off five hits, including a triple by sophomore Dillion Plath. The inning’s hits also included a double by senior Jake Daniels and singles by freshman Ryan Duncan, junior Jeremy Lambert, and Paletta.
Junior Andrew Marshall was the starting pitcher for the Beavers in the Webster game and worked the first 3.2 innings, allowing three runs on three hits. Sophomore Scott Harris then took the mound to pitch 4.2 innings his first career win. He allowed two runs on four hits, struck out three and walked one. Sophomore pitcher Lucas Hadaway pitched some ninth inning relief, but Bjorkgren got the final two outs and his second save.
In the final game of the day, the Beavers faced Washington University, who put up five runs early in the game that helped them eventually win by a margin of 7-5.
BVU got a run in the top of the third inning to make it a 2-1 game before Washington got four straight hits to start its half that led to three runs, and then capitalized on a BVU error in the fourth to add to two more runs.
BVU tried to come back both in the seventh, when the team had bases loaded but a double-play ended the pursuit, and in the ninth when the Beavers got two RBI singles and even got the tying run to the plate before a pitching changed stopped the momentum.
The first six hitters in the line-up against Washington went a combined 15-for-26 in the game, including four hits from Plath. Foxx and Paletta each added three more hits with Foxx also scoring three times.
“In the Wash U game, we had the opportunity and bases loaded twice, but didn’t get that one hit we needed to win the game. In the last inning, we were one hit away. We’ll definitely have to be working on defense and correcting those throwing errors. We’re happy with where we’re standing right now and we’ll build from it,” Paletta said.
The Beavers are 2-1 on the year to start and resume play until March 16-17 when they have a three-game series at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebr.
