ON THE BUMP
ON THE BUMP
Hello Gents fans and welcome back to another busy week of baseball. We played four games this past week and they were all great games. We played a tough mid-week game against Grambling, and three games this weekend against conference opponent Louisiana College. This week, I will tell you about all four games and talk about our upcoming games against Louisiana Tech and University of the Ozarks.
We started off the week with a home game against Grambling on Tuesday. It was supposed to be played at Grambling, but heavy rain over the weekend resulted in their field being unplayable. The game started out a little rough, as our starting pitcher was only able to record one out. However, Nic Parrott came on in relief and minimized the damage. However, we were down 2-0 after the top of the first inning. Tyler Clakley got the inning going with a two-out double, and he eventually scored on a Jeff Schaffert RBI single. Unfortunately, that was all the offense we would get for a while as Grambling led 4-1 after the top of the fourth inning. We were flat and the energy level was very low up to this point. After the top of the fourth inning, I huddled our bench players (non-starters and pitchers) together and told them that we have to pick up the energy level and pick up the intensity.
Low and behold, we scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Jemari James got the scoring started, as he stroked an RBI single to right that scored Tyler Clakley. Dan Lazarou tacked on two more runs with a two-RBI double that scored Jemari James and Jeff Schaffert. Craig Littleman added an RBI single and Matt Creamer added a sacrifice fly to complete the scoring for the inning. Grambling added a run in the top of the fifth, but we answered with an RBI groundout by Jeff Schaffert to extend the lead to 7-5. Grambling scratched across another run in the sixth inning, and the score stayed at 7-6 until the bottom of the seventh inning. With two outs, Dan Lazarou ripped an RBI single to right to score Jeff Schaffert, and Craig Littleman followed that with a clutch RBI triple to score Dan. Grambling scored a run in the eighth and ninth innings, but Kyle Morton cancelled out their runs by blasting a two run home run to right field in the bottom of the eighth inning. In the end, we won 11-8. It was not a pretty game, but we got the job done. We struggled a little defensively, which was obvious by the "5" in our error column.
On the bright side, we knocked out 15 hits offensively. On the mound, Nic Parrott threw well in relief and earned the win. Taylor Henry closed out the last three innings for us and earned the save as a result of his efforts. Another bright spot was Grady Flournoy's return to our pitching lineup this week. Grady had Tommy John surgery (the last phrase you want to hear as a pitcher) last year, so it was great to add him back into the equation. At the plate, Jemari James and Dan Lazarou led our offensive attack. James went 3-for-4 with an RBI, while Lazarou went 2-for-4 with three RBIs. Tyler Clakley, Kyle Morton, Jeff Schaffert and Craig Littleman all had multi-hit games as well. In the end, we still beat a Division I team while playing far from our highest level. While our level of play disappointed us, we were glad to come out on top. In fact, Grambling is no slouch of a program. Last weekend, they defeated the No. 5 team in the country, the Rice Owls.
On Wednesday, we had an intersquad scrimmage. However, I did not get the chance to stick around and watch most of it. At the beginning of practice, our shortstop, Matt Creamer, was practicing fielding ground balls, and a ball took a bad hop. The ball skipped over his glove and caught him right around his left eye. I took him to the hospital, where he received a few stitches to go along with a nice sized bruise/swelling around his eye. Matt's parents met us there and they were glad that the damage was not worse. I enjoyed his dad's comment that "he must have had good form" in order for the ball to hop up in the face. Yes, he was in front of the ball and kept his head down (perfect form), unfortunately, the ball took a bad hop. But, you have to love dads, always finding a positive in the situation!
Thursday was a light practice, because we always take it a little easier the day before a game. On Friday, we left for Louisiana College, which is located in Pineville, Louisiana. It was only about an hour and a half drive, so we took several vans instead of a bus. Most of the pitchers rode in Coach Stephen's van and we had a fun time jamming some classic music and preparing for the game.
Our offense got started early on Friday night as Matt Creamer led off the game with a single, and he eventually scored on a Jeff Schaffert sacrifice fly. We added two runs in the top of the third inning. Jeff Schaffert drove in a run with an RBI double, and Marc Martinez eventually knocked Jeff in with an RBI single. Lance Nugent started on the mound for us and was great. I know he was excited for the game because he grew up in Colfax, which is just outside of Pineville. He pitched great, as he took a no-hitter into the fifth inning. The score remained 3-0 until the eighth inning, when both teams scratched out a run. Marc Martinez led off the inning with a single, and he eventually scored on a wild pitch. The final score was 4-1, as Lance Nugent earned his fourth win of the season, and Taylor Henry closed out the final 1 2/3 innings for us. Lance threw 7 1/3 innings, striking out six, while allowing four hits. Matt Creamer, Jeff Schaffert, and Marc Martinez all had multi-hit games for us. I jokingly told Matt's dad that he needed to take a ball to the eye every week, because he swung the bat really well this weekend. We played better than the score indicated, but we still need to finish stronger and put the game away when we have the opportunity.
After the game on Friday nig
