On the Bump with Cole Thompson
On the Bump with Cole Thompson
Hello Gents fans and welcome back to another week of "On the Bump." This is a busy but short week for us as Easter weekend is on the horizon. We only have classes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and then we are off for the rest of the week. However, it is far from an off-week on the baseball field. We are preparing for a busy weekend with nationally-ranked UT-Tyler. This week I will talk about our three game series with Mississippi College, and explain to you why we are not eligible to be ranked this year in the national polls. I know there has been a lot of confusion, so I will try my best to make it short and simple.
This past week was a little different because Coach Jolley hosted a Spring Break Baseball Camp for local Shreveport kids. When we weren't in class, it was likely that you could find our players out at the field helping organize and run the camp. It was fun to get out there and share our baseball knowledge with young campers.
Our practice during the week was short, but intense and busy. We really hammered down on improving our defense, and our pitchers threw their bullpens to live hitters. It was the kind of week where we expose our weaknesses, but with the intent to better ourselves by strengthening the weakest parts of our game.
On Thursday, afternoon we left for Mississippi College, which is in Clinton, Miss. It was about a three-hour bus ride, and we arrived at Mississippi College around 7 p.m. We took batting practice in their batting cages and our pitchers played catch in the outfield. One of the first things we noticed was that Mississippi College had great facilities and a nice field. After practice we headed over to a nice meal at Applebee's, which we all enjoyed.
Friday was a great day because we did not have a morning practice or a wake-up call for an early game. Since we didn't play until 6 p.m., we were able to sleep until about 10 a.m. and then go grab breakfast in the hotel lobby. You could tell that our offense was well rested, as they erupted for five runs in the top of the first inning of game one. Ryan Gasporra doubled to start the rally, and Tyler Clakley knocked him in with a two-run homer to right field. Next, Kyle Morton smoked a double to right field, and scored on an RBI single by Jeff Schaffert. Jemari James capped off the inning with a two-run bomb to right field that hit off the top of the scoreboard at Mississippi College. Mississippi College scored a single run in the first and second innings to make the score 5-2, but we answered with another run in the third inning on an RBI double by Marc Martinez, which drove in Jeff Schaffert.
Lance Nugent held the Mississippi College bats in check over the next few innings, as we took our 6-2 lead into the sixth inning. Our bats put the game out of reach in the sixth inning, as we put up four more runs. We took advantage of an error by Mississippi College to score a run, and then Ryan Gasporra put the nail in the coffin by hitting a three run home run to the opposite field, which drove in Craig Littleman and Matt Creamer. Mississippi College scored a run in the eighth inning and two runs in the ninth, but it was not enough to overcome our lead. We won 10-5, and Lance Nugent earned his sixth win of the year. Nugent did a great job of fighting for eight innings and making sure that we kept our big lead. He attacked hitters and forced them to string hits together in order to beat us. Our defense was a little off in the ninth inning, but besides that we played a good game defensively. At the plate, Ryan Gasporra, Tyler Clakley, Kyle Morton, Jeff Schaffert, and Jemari James all had multi-hit games. That is the meat of our batting order, so I would say it's a great day offensively when they all have multi-hit games.
Our offense stayed hot in game two of the series as Ryan Gasporra and Kyle Morton hit solo home runs in the first inning to give us a 2-0 lead. However, Mississippi College answered back with three runs in the bottom of the first inning. I will take blame for that, because I started off the inning by hitting a batter, walking a batter, and then trying to get an out at third on a bunt when I should have thrown to first base and made the easy play. Our offense picked me up though and scored four runs in the second inning. Craig Littleman hit a sacrifice fly to score Jemari James, and then Ryan Gasporra smoked a two RBI triple to right field. Tyler Clakley wrapped up the scoring with an RBI single that scored Gasporra. I settled into the game on the mound and the score was still 6-3 going into the sixth inning. Dan Lazarou added a sacrifice fly to score Jemari James and extended our lead to 7-3.
Unfortunately, Mississippi College scored four runs in the sixth inning to tie the game. They strung a few hits together and capitalized on an error, and as a result they tied the game. I was disappointed that I was unable to hold off their rally, but that's baseball. Some days the ball finds defenders, and some days the ball finds holes. Grady Flournoy came on in relief and was able to get us out of the inning. Grady has done a good job of pitching since coming off of his knee and elbow injuries. Our offense answered back strong as Tyler Clakley blasted a two-run homer to put us up 9-7. Keep in mind this was the seven inning game, so we were three outs away from winning. However, Mississippi College rallied for three runs in the bottom of the seventh to steal a 10-9 win. Losses like that hurt badly, especially when we lead by as many as four runs late in the game. It was especially frustrating because we worked on playing defense with a two-run lead earlier in the week in practice. But like I said, that's baseball. Sometimes you win the close games, and sometimes you lose them.
Game three of the series was a little different, as freshman Taylor Henry made his first start of the season. Taylor has thrown a lot in relief for us this year, but we needed him to make a key start for us. Interestingly, he also pitched in relief in the first two games of the series against Mississippi College. The game remained scoreless until the third inning when our offense came through for five runs on seven hits.
