Seniors take three of four

By Dillon Flanigan

Sports Editor

For the first time since March 29, the Owls baseball team returned home to face the American International College Yellow Jackets, splitting two on Friday, April 18 and taking two on Saturday, April 19.

“We were very thin on the mound with injuries, and we gave up a ton of runs yesterday. We really just had freshmen to throw today. Jace Alvino did a great job,” Head Coach Tim Shea said.

After using eight different pitchers in a 15-13 win and a 24-7 loss on Good Friday, the Owls had a short list of remaining available arms.

In a game one walk-off 9-8 win on Saturday, freshman Jace Alvino provided a suitable outing giving up one walk, nine hits and five runs in five and two-thirds innings while sitting down six.

Though the stat line for Alvino is not appealing to the naked eye, the damage was limited, stranding the Yellow Jackets by much needed strikeouts.

In the top of the fifth, as the Yellow Jackets were slowly mounting a comeback, Leandro Guevara singled to the center fielder Isaiah Walker, a graduate, who started the relay home throwing out Josh Frometta at the plate keeping the narrow lead at 5-2.

Following the first three batters in the top of the sixth reaching base, Alvino buckled down to get the next two Yellow Jackets.

Though as seen on Friday, no lead is safe as each team gave up a seven-plus lead in a single inning. AIC’s Cole Patters would chase Alvino out of the game with an RBI single tying the score at five apiece.

“Alvino has been great for us. He’s been going deep in the game,” Shea said. “He stepped up big today, kept it close. Obviously, we had the lead, we relinquished it but still did a good job and then Harry did a great job.”

Fellow freshman Harry Roy entered the game for the Owls tossing the final four and one third innings.

The Owls took a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the eighth, only to hand it back after an intentional walk to Guevara and a three-run homer by Nick Serce in the top of the ninth, knocking the wind out of the Owls sail.

“He was four for four on the day he was having a great weekend. I didn’t want him to beat us quite honestly, so I would rather pitch to the to the lefty. We just left the fastball away. You see how the winds blowing, that’s what happens sometimes, that’s baseball,” Shea said. “A lot of other teams would have just folded the tents at that point with that momentum swing.”

Primarily hitting in the bottom third of the lineup, Shea moved catcher Brennan Staubley, a redshirt sophomore, to the two hole; which paid off as he hit a two-run game tying homer keeping the hope alive at 8-8.

In the tenth, first basemen and slugger Jack Drewry, a graduate, who was playing his last regular season home game, beat out a dribbler off the end of the bat to shortstop to win game one.

“I’ve had a little rough stretch just staying true to it, the work I put in, trust in it, just trying to catch barrels, see the ball, catch it out front and then go from there. Guys stepped up. We did our job. We had a rough day yesterday. It’s huge to bounce back like that,” Drewry said about his productive day at the plate.

As most of the Owls rested in the latter game, Spencer Chard, a sophomore, Walker and Drewry, who went three for five with a double, a three-run homer and five RBIs in game one, started game two.

“It wasn’t a conference game, but anytime we go out in the field, take a feel as a competitor you want to win the game. So, all these guys are cheering us on, so we got to be there cheering them on,” Drewry said.

Originally scheduled as a single conference game, Trace Morales, a freshman, took the bump for the Owls in game two of the non-conference game where he tossed a complete game. With a taxed pitching staff in-season, no pun intended, Shea was happy he did not need to rely on Drewry and other position players to throw an inning or two.