Bus rides, Beaches, and Baseball
The Scots baseball team started off their season during a spring break trip to Florida. “The purpose for this trip is to play and find out what players you can depend on throughout the season. Our young guys played pretty well and that is very exciting,” Coach Alan Betourne said.
The season started off with a double header against SUNY-Maritime College and the University of Northwestern-Minnesota on Saturday, March 4th. The first game of the doubleheader the Scots beat SUNY-Maritime College 24-9. The Scots started off strong, scoring 7 runs in the bottom of the first inning. Todd Fowler started off the second inning with a walk and the Scots loaded the bases with one-out singles. Daniel Lummus cleared the bases with a triple making the score 10-0 and Nate Melvin’s sacrifice fly made it 11-0. The team continued to progress, which ended up with them getting the 6th most runs in school history.
The second game the Scots lost 6-5 to a walk off sacrifice fly against University of Northwestern-Minnesota. During the second game, neither team scored in the first inning but the Scots came out in the second and scored on a 2-run home-run by Reid Stufflebeem. The game was tied from the fourth inning to the sixth inning, when the Scots took the lead due to Melvin getting on base with a single, then Melvin would be advanced and later score due to another single hit by Raul Guillermo. UNW tied the game in the bottom of the 7th from two runs. UNW ended up winning from three straight singles and a sacrifice fly to the center in the bottom of the ninth.
The Scots played against Elizabethtown College the following day and lost both games. The Scots had two hits in the first game that were both singles from Melvin and Lummus, and five hits in the second game that were singles from Clayton Matkovic who had two, Toby Turnquist, Todd Fowler, and Melvin.
The Scots returned on Tuesday, March 7th and played two games against Norwich, resulting in two games with 1-run losses. The Scots kept up with Norwich, with Matkovic scoring on a double play ball resulting in being down one point in the seventh. Jakob Brokaw took the loss but did not allow an earned run. During the second game the Scots scored in the 6th inning making the scored 3-1, they ended up scoring once more in the seventh leaving the final score to be 3-2.
On Thursday, March 9th the Scots won both of their games, making a clean sweep for the day. The first game they won against Wheaton College 5-4. The first score was during the third, where Wheaton quickly scored 4. The Scots got right back into the game, Fowler tied up the game, and Tyler Houck got the Scots up 5-4. The second game the Scots beat Thiel College 3-1. Addison Fletcher got the win as he struck out 8 over the 8 innings.
The Scots played their final game of the trip on March 10th, that resulted in a loss of 1-12 against Penn State Behrend. Logan Komater scored during the third from an RBI groundout by Jack Kuethe. Riley Jennings threw a scoreless inning in the 7th, and Brokaw threw a scoreless 8th inning.
The Scots are now 3-6 and will play against Augustana College on Friday March 17th.
Lydia Perez - Sports Editor