One weekend of 2010 baseball left

Getting ready to take our team picture and have our last practice of the season today. Tomorrow’s a travel day as we head to Tacoma to take on PLU to conclude our season.

To say we’ve hit a bit of a rough patch during the last few weeks would be an understatement. Losing streaks happen, surely, but they’re never fun to go through. Heading into the last series of the year, it’s hard not to look back and wonder about what-ifs and should-haves. As previously mentioned on the blog, there were several series in which we felt like we should have walked away with more W’s. There were also weekends where we didn’t play up to our ability, or flatly didn’t play good baseball.

Our last two non- conference games we winnable but we came up short because we gave up too many runs. Every midweek game this year we have thrown several pitchers for just an inning or two apiece. It would be great to have a fourth starter, a guy who was itching to get in the games during the weekend but was held back because we had enough pitching to win the series. Then we c0uld throw him on a Tuesday and allow the guy to go 5 or 6 innings and allow our pitching staff to develop. But that just wasn’t the situation this year.

Pitching has been our major weakness all year. There’s no beating around the bush there. On Saturday some of our more reliable guys struggled on the bump, but Sunday was exciting because of the way our guys stepped up and shut down a pretty good offensive team. If we play that kind of baseball this weekend, and every weekend, then we will compete with any team in our conference.

There’s plenty of time for summing up our accomplishments after the season is over, though. Right now we have to focus on playing our best baseball at the end of the season. So today’s practice will be all about focusing on what we need to do to be successful. One main focus will be successfully executing situational hitting. We’ve put up good numbers all year, but timely hitting on a consistent basis has not been a strong point. If we continue to pepper the ball around the yard, and then follow with hits in run-scoring situations, we will be competitive.

Linfield series

When a team is swept, you have to look back and think back to what you could have done differently. This weekend it appeared as if we were plainly outmatched.

However, we came very close to capturing the middle game, and who knows how Sunday would have turned out had we not suffered the tough loss the day before. For the most part, though, we ran into a team that beat us in all aspects of the game.

Although we want to figure out went wrong, sometimes it’s best to move on as quickly as possible. With a non-conference game on Wednesday, and our last home series this weekend, there is a lot for us to look forward to. Best to move on and try to get back to the baseball we were playing before this weekend.

Puget Sound, Day 2

Days like today are very humbling. After yesterday’s two victories, we were licking our chops at the prospective of a sweep. And even though we looked fairly good, we got beat in all areas of the game, allowing Puget Sound to salvage the Sunday game.

We made errors, got out-hit, and got out-pitched. It was as simple as that. Some days you play as well as we did and you win. Other days you play very well and you lose. But we can’t expect to seal a series sweep by just playing mediocre baseball.

Five series are behind us and we are 6-9 in conference. Now we are headed into the toughest part of our schedule, but also the portion we are most looking forward to.  After two non-conference games over the next 8 days and a bye weekend, we hit the road for 2 of our last 3 series. On the road versus Linfield, at home for Senior weekend against George Fox,  and up to Tacoma to finish the year against PLU.

Our bye week couldn’t come at a better time. It’s too bad we have not scheduled the full 40-games allowed, but now it’s looking like a good decision. Got some guys that need the extra days off and the recovery time to recharge and make the final sprint to finish our 2010 campaign.

Puget Sound, Day 1

Finally, we’re starting to play ball the kind of ball we are capable of.

Today was a feel-good day from start to finish. It’s nearly impossible to have an entire day of baseball where everything goes right, and today was certainly not one of those rare occasions, but there were tons of positives to take away from our doubleheader.

We secured our first conference series win by sweeping the doubleheader at home today, and we have given ourselves the chance to sweep the series on Sunday, which would be a great way to transition into our bye weekend. It wasn’t easy though — we had to to make it exciting, plating 4 runs in the bottom of the 10th to win game 1. Victories like that feel good for several reasons: we prove  to ourselves that we can win in extra innings, that we can come from behind to walk away winners, and it gives our pitchers confidence that even if they are taken out when we are behind that we won’t tag them with a loss.  And lastly, even when we are forced to shuffle our lineup around significantly due to several injured players, we will manage to get the job done.

Game 2 wasn’t a walk in the park, either. Our starter couldn’t get through the third inning, but Ryo responded after throwing 90 pitches in his start against Corban by shutting Puget Sound down for the remainder of the game, giving up no runs. Haven’t seen his stats yet, but he earned his first two wins this week, and significantly lowered his ERA. He has been a pleasant surprise to start the second half of our season.

So far this week we are 3-1. We beat Corban at their yard, and lost a psuedo-home game against Concordia (their field is under construction). We have started off slower than we hoped, but we playing better ball than we were in the beginning of the year, which has been one of our main goals from the start.

At this point of the baseball season, we have to be weary because small things start to wear on everyone. That’s why we are happy to be playing good baseball despite our slow start and numerous injuries: it means everyone is staying focused, doing their job, and taking care of business. Baseball humbles you because of the number of games played. We are playing well on the heels of an off weekend followed by three series against the three teams currently at the top of the standings. We have a lot to be excited about this year.

Whitworth, Day 2

After a quick stop for some fast food, we’re on the road back to Portland. It’s going to be a longer bus ride because we let another winnable game slip out of our grasp. Whitworth did what they are suppose to do: win a home series. It would have been great to take today’s game from them, but that’s not always how it works out in this game.

So instead of leaving Washington with a pair of wins, we’re asking all the questions you normally ask after a loss. However, a quick glance at the score board will tell you all you need to know. Our normally reliable defense made 4 errors on the springboard that is Whitworth’s infield. Those mistakes translated into 4 unearned runs, and there’s the difference in the game.

We are now done playing half of our conference opponents. Our NWC record stands at 4-8; in four weekends we have won one out of the three contests, hardly an accomplishment we can revel in.

However, any team’s goal is to improve over the course of the season. The teams at the top hope to get hot at the right time so they are running on all gears when the playoffs start. Teams in the middle aim to string together wins at the end of the season in order to secure a wild card or at-large bid. And teams below that try to win so they can end their season on a positive note and have something to carry over to the next year.

So, with our guys on spring break and two non-conference games scheduled for this week, it’s a good time to evaluate where we are and what we want to accomplish through our remaining games. Also, non-conference games are important because we can rearrange our lineup while still putting a squad on the field that we believe can earn us a win.

The coaching staff will review our stats and make some adjustments to practices, because of course when you are losing more than you win you have to make some changes.

Bottom line: we’re exhausted. Win or lose, traveling across states takes a lot out of everyone. And no matter what adjustments we need to make, we can’t do much until we play again on Tuesday. Tomorrow’s a day off, which during the season means a chance for our student-athletes to catch up on their academics. For now, though, there’s nothing to do but take in a few sights out the window, watch a few movies, and try to turn the page so we’re ready to go when our time to play comes again.

Whitworth, Day 1

Today matters very little if we don’t win tomorrow.

We split with Whitowrth, winning the first behind a complete-game effort from St. Pierre and 7 runs in the first two innings from our offense. It was a letdown to drop the second game by almost the same margin we won by in the first game, though. The box score makes it seem like we were in the second game, but we had to score in the last inning to make it appear that way. However, on the optimistic side of things, the first two games have set up one of the greatest events in the game of baseball: the rubber match.

We have a chance to win our first conference series of the year, something we strive for every single weekend. That is what is exciting our team tonight and that it what will be motivating us tomorrow when we aim to finish this weekend on a win. On a long road trip like this, there is absolutely no better feeling than winning the Sunday game and traveling back home with more wins than the host team.

One constant today, as it has been our whole season, was our hitting. But if we are going to win tomorrow, we won’t survive just on hitting; we need timely hitting. There were several situations today where we could have capitalized but failed to do so. Those situations will surely come up tomorrow, and winning those individual battles will most likely determine whether we win or lose the game, and this series.

An interesting note/prediction for tomorrow. We didn’t hit any home runs today, even in a small ballpark on a sunny day where the ball certainly carries. Baseball is a funny game. Maybe we continue our home run slump tomorrow, or maybe we are due to hit a couple out of the yard.

Look for an extended blog tomorrow – no promises, but we will have a 7-plus hour bus ride, and after tomorrow we will have played half our conference games.

Whitman series; Payton’s inauguration

This weekend was a mix of emotions for our team, our fans, and especially a new member of our baseball family.

If you’ve seen the scores, you were probably surprised to see that we lost two of three games to Whitman. After all, they have a history of losing many games as long as most of us can remember. However, we proved there is truth to the old adage about baseball: any team can beat any other team on any given day. We let their history affect the way we played and were then outplayed to drop the first two games of the series. Our guys learned a tough lesson that every player learns at some point in their career: take no part of this game for granted.

It’s a good thing we play each series over a span of two days. We came out as the team we know we are on Sunday, winning handily behind a rejuvenated offense and a strong individual pitching performance. The brand of baseball we played today is the kind we know we can play; it’s simply a matter of getting out there and getting it done on game day.

The importance of winning conference games only intensifies as the season moves on, so taking the third game even though we were frustrated from Saturday’s performance was very important to us. It also meant we made a statement about our 2010 campaign that we will not tuck our tails between our legs and allow us to keep losing. We’re going to battle, regardless of the situation.

After Sunday’s game we held a ceremony that held more importance than any of our games. We welcomed Payton Northam as an honorary Lewis & Clark Pioneer in front of our entire team, fans and family. We met Payton several weeks back and have been touched by his story. Last year, he was diagnosed with a tumor and has just begun chemotherapy. Payton and our team have been joined through an organization called The Friends of Jacklyn (to learn more, visit their website: http://www.friendsofjaclyn.org/).

We showed Payton that he will forever be a Pioneer by unveiling a plaque that is placed on the front corner of the bleachers closest to our dugout. The plaque, which reads, “RESERVED for Payton Northam: Pioneer for life,” is placed where Payton sat during the first Pioneer baseball game he ever attended. Payton will always have a place to watch his team play.

Payton checking out his new ball that all the players signed.

Payton wearing his very own Pioneer baseball cap, which definitely has some room for him to grow in to.

Payton mentioned he wanted to catch, and our catcher took his words to heart in letting him try on his gear.

Payton has reminded us that there are things in life far more pressing than the game we play between the lines. We hope Payton has fun when he is with our team, and we want him to know he has many friends that care about him. Payton, you are a brave young man and we are very proud of you.

Willamette, Day 2

Today was a hard day to swallow. We lost our first chance at winning a series on the last day of the weekend, and again we were in control and could have walked away from Salem with a very different result.

We’re really hurting ourselves with the amount of walks we are averaging. A quick look at the stats will very quickly reveal this. But we’re battling out there and we are hungry, maybe even more so now that we’ve let a couple of games slip through our fingers.

After the game, we were talking to Willamette’s staff and discussing the scores from around the conference. Pacific, Whitman, and George Fox all salvaged their Sundays. So although it’s early, the conference is fairly tight. We like it that way – it gives everyone a better chance at playing for something at the end of the year.

However, when we host Whitman next weekend, we’re going to do everything we can to keep them from getting anything from us.

Day 1 at Willamette

What happened today was pretty simple: we were nails in the first game, and we walked too many batters and didn’t give ourselves a chance to sweep the first day.

We find ourselves in a different position going into this Sunday than we did the last. Instead of needing to steal a game to salvage the series, we are now in a great position to win a conference series on the road. That’s no small feat, but it’s our goal. The best teams in the NWC have historically swept all or most of their games at home, and won every road series.

It’s safe to say that St. Pierre set the tone today. We’ve been banging the ball around the yard but our pitching has been up and down. We fed off his focus and intensity. And we’ll look to avenge game 2′s letdown tomorrow.

The rest of the conference started playing each other this weekend. It’s tough not to scoreboard-watch when all of us are fans of baseball as well as players and coaches. But we feel as though we control our own fate so focusing on our own games is all that really matters.

We play one tomorrow. Moving back to a three-game series was a terrific decision by the conference. Besides, splitting a four-game series feels so unsatisfactory, for the exact reason tomorrow will be exciting: someone will win the series, and someone will lose. And with only 8 conference series in a season, each one is vitally important.

Pacific Wrap-Up

Another weekend where we felt we should have finished with a higher number in the win column — our guys are getting hungrier and hungrier for some more victories, especially after yesterday’s marathon, walk-off win. No matter how many times you see it happen, or how many times you are a part of it, there is certainly nothing like winning a game in the last inning in front of the home crowd.

Coming away with a victory against Pacific on Sunday helped us salvage the weekend, and left us feeling confident heading into the new week. As disappointing as it is to lose two games at home, we  did exactly what we needed to do in the third game: we came out fresh, with nothing on our minds except winning that game.

By not allowing ourselves to be swept, we showed that we are competing this year, and not simply rolling over when it looks like we should. And when we are on the other side of a probable sweep we will recall this weekend and know that winning three games in a weekend is not something you just roll out of bed and do.

What’s most exciting — what we take away from this weekend — is that we are a team that will get some excellent performance from individual players. We got a real boost from many different players at various times on Sunday, and their competitive nature will surely trickle down to a few of the guys that either didn’t get opportunities or didn’t get it done when we needed them to.

So, at 1-2 in the NWC standings, we are beginning our preparation for Willamette. They took three out of four from us last year. But it’s a new year.