The Lions baseball team struggled on Saturday, losing 9-1 and 7-1 in a doubleheader against their Great Northeast Athletic Conference opponent.,With a long time off between games due to some rough weather, the Emerson men’s baseball team was rusty when they finally took the field on Saturday against their opponents from St. Joseph’s College.
The Lions baseball team struggled on Saturday, losing 9-1 and 7-1 in a doubleheader against their Great Northeast Athletic Conference opponent. The team is now 4-10 (0-4 in the GNAC).
The boys hadn’t played since March 30 when they lost a pair of games to Rivier. The sporadic New England weather has resulted in a slew of game cancellations and the Lions were only able to get outside to practice once in the previous two weeks before Saturday’s twin bill.
“We had a handful of non-conference games scheduled earlier in the season to help us prepare for the more important GNAC games,” said freshman Jared Wyso, a writing for film and TV major. “All of these games got cancelled, which forced us to jump right into conference play-not an ideal situation.”
Head coach David Hanley also noted the weather’s inconvenience.
“It’s been pretty limiting,” Hanley said. “Not just because we can’t play but our opponents have not been playing either.”
With the rough weather and a rash of injuries, Emerson’s defensive lineup was in disarray. Third basemen Brian Kitson was out with a shoulder injury and left fielder Brendan McNamara moved to third to fill the vacant slot. Wyso came off the bench to patrol left field.
“We had different people at different positions all over the first game,” said senior captain and broadcast journalism major Bryan Fennessey. “It’s always tough when you aren’t in rhythm.”
The Lions tallied five errors in game one behind starting pitcher Kent Anderson, who sacrificed his arm to throw a complete game. All of St. Joseph’s runs were unearned, meaning that if Emerson’s defense had fallen into some sort of rhythm, they may have had a chance at contending with the Monks.
With the miscues, though, St. Joseph’s had little trouble in the opener. The Monks scored nine runs in game one, registering seven of those before Emerson had a chance to answer back with a run in the sixth.
The Lions shaped up in game two and committed no errors on defense, but had trouble scoring despite dishing out eight hits. Their only run came in the sixth inning when Nick Hesketh singled in Anderson for an RBI.
Peter Karl took the loss on the mound for Emerson and pitched all seven innings in game two.
“Without any doubt in my mind, our pitchers deserve all the praise they can get for the hard work they put in for us over the weekend,” said Wyso, with echoed sentiments from Hanley and Fennessey.
With a small pitching group of six, it was important for Anderson and Karl to last as long as they could on the mound to save arms for upcoming games.
“I cannot emphasize enough how key pitching is,” said Fennessey.
Behind a cast of strong pitchers, Hanley said the Lions needed to rehabilitate their defense and make moves to pick up some wins in the conference.
“We’re not looking for excuses,” said Hanley. “We need to play better from top to bottom.”