Matt Cain – Contributor
The final score ended up being 5-4 in a crazy ten-inning game. The Owls now have a record of 16-6 on the season and a 5-1 at-home record. The Owls knew this was a game they could have won, being that they had played them before. Head Coach, Tim shea was not feeling the extra-inning loss.
“Disappointed. There are some positive things, but we did not do enough on the offensive side,” Coach said.
The positive outcome is the pitching. Pitcher Mike Szturzma , a redshirt freshman got the start on the mound. It was not a bad outing as he went six innings and gave up one run, as well as a couple of hits.
Szturma also managed to pitch in and out of trouble, getting out of the 3rd inning with the bases loaded. The middle innings were where the owls fell apart letting the knights get hits that should have been pop-outs. As well as picking up errors. In the fifth inning, Queen College scored three runs, two of them coming from a two-run homer.
Queen would also take the lead in the fifth as well. Outfielder Connor Goggins, a redshirt sophomore, had a decent day. He would go 2-for-4 at the plate and driving in the game-tying run.
Goggins has been one of the Owls’ premier hitters, with a batting average of 395 and a .704 slugging percentage. Even with his good performance throughout the season and in the game, he believes the team could have been better.
“We played a decent game, there are still some things we could of did better,” Goggins said.
Fielding was a key factor in the game. Queens College would get on base with a couple of infield singles and a fielder’s choice. The owls are usually a good defensive team. They have a .956 fielding percentage on the year so far.
“We let them get hits that shouldn’t have been hits,” Coach Shea said.
Catcher Billy Sullivan, a redshirt sophomore, batted lead-off in the game. He would only have one hit with five at-bats in the game. With Sullivan struggling in the game, he had little history with the starting pitcher from Queens College.
“I faced him in the summer, he’s got a good couple of pitches and some off-speed, so it was tough,” Sullivan said.
As the game narrowed down, a pitching change came from both teams.
The Owls would bring in outfielder Matt Smith, a graduate student and pitcher Tommy Huges, a redshirt junior. Smith would give three innings of work to keep the game close. Hughes kept the game close as well, but only needed one run, the owls’ bats stayed silent to take the game to an extra inning. Queens college scored one run in the top of the 10th, but Queen would put it away in the bottom of the 10th with a strikeout.
Going into the weekend, the owls have a two-game series with Queens over the weekend. The owls are now going to see how they can get better in the next coming games and take a different approach against a good pitching team.
“We didn’t get enough offensively; these are things we have to change up.” Shea stated
The plan of attack going forward seems to be to put the ball in play. For the owls, this usually is not hard as most of the guys in the lineup can drill some runs, the problem occurs when facing a good pitching team.
Coach Shea wants to forget about this game and looks forward to the next two.
The Owls have been a good baseball team all season, they plan to bounce back from this one-point loss. The team is determined to get this win back. Look for the owls to come out strong and aggressive in the next coming games.
