Baseball is in the air

Aaron Wolfson
Pam Buzzetta

Home cooking does wonders for the Bears.

Nearly three weeks after the Washington University baseball team was supposed to kick off its season at home, the Bears finally played their first games at Kelly Field last weekend.

WU won all four weekend contests, two each against the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) Raiders and Concordia College Cougars, but no game was as exciting as Sunday’s rematch against Concordia.

The second game of the weekend against the Cougars was knotted at three runs apiece heading into the fifth inning when Bears sophomore starter Alex Curcuru was pulled after giving up a leadoff single in favor of fellow sophomore William Schierding.

After Schierding took the hill, the Cougars’ offense exploded for nine runs, including two after freshman Chris Lange was brought in to pitch. Although the three Bears pitchers gave up just four hits in the inning, there were also four walks, three errors, and a wild pitch. When the inning ended, the Bears were facing a gigantic 12-3 deficit and looked to be done.

“That wasn’t a good inning at all, but we came right back to the dugout, and everyone was up and getting into it,” sophomore pitcher Josh Dietch said. “We had been hitting their pitcher really well, and we thought we could get those runs right back. The best part was that nobody on the team got down, and we all just stayed with it.”

The dugout excitement translated into a big response from the Bears, to the tune of eight runs, and the base on balls proved to be the major weapon in the comeback. Kirk Heischmidt homered and Steve Schmidt doubled following walks, and two runs were scored on an error by the Cougars’ left fielder. When the dust settled, the Bears had battled their way back to a 12-11 deficit heading into the sixth inning.

Concordia pushed the lead to 13-11 with an RBI single off of Lange, but in the bottom half of the inning, Steve Schmidt answered with a clutch two-run homer to tie the game. Despite his tough outing the previous day, freshman Lou Hutt was given the chance to pitch by head coach Ric Lessmann, and the freshman rewarded his coach’s faith. The Cougars would not score again in the game.

“Lou Hutt is going to be a good pitcher for us this year and for the future,” Lessmann said. “I plan to start him in one of the games this weekend.”

Hutt tossed three scoreless innings to send the game, still tied, into the bottom of the ninth. Freshman Jeff Ching led off as a pinch hitter and singled, and Matt LoBosco followed with another single. With runners on first and second and nobody out, Ramos Mays hit another single, scoring Ching, giving the Bears a walk-off 14-13 victory over Concordia. With his stellar relief performance, Hutt earned his first collegiate victory.

“It was a big help to finally play at home,” Dietch said. “It was nice not having to take that long bus ride.”

The Bears’ weekend odyssey began on Friday when their home game against Greenville College was rained out. Rather than postponing the game, though, the teams decided to play at the Panthers’ home field in Greenville, Illinois, a 45-mile trip from St. Louis.

“The Greenville game at their place was no problem,” Lessmann said, “but so many games in a short span of time has and will be a continuing problem.”

While the Bears did play five games in three days, it didn’t faze their offense. WU kicked off the stretch with an 11-3 rout of Greenville, with Steve Schmidt pitching a complete game, allowing just four hits. The Bears used a balanced attack at the plate, getting multiple hits from six different starters and home runs from four.

On Saturday, the Bears opened up their home season against MSOE and quickly fell behind the Raiders in the third inning. As Hutt attempted to turn what would have been an inning ending double play, he threw wide to second base, allowing both base runners to advance safely with one out. Hutt then hit the next two batters, forcing in a run and getting the Raiders on the scoreboard first, and was subsequently pulled in favor of senior Matt Knepper.

Knepper quickly got the final two outs to end the inning and maintained the one-run deficit. The Bears’ offense made up the difference and then some in the bottom half of the inning. The highlight was a towering two-run double by senior first baseman Ryan Argo, who had a monstrous game, going 4-for-4 with four RBI and three runs scored. The Bears scored four runs in the third inning rally, and Knepper allowed MSOE just one more run, as WU cruised to an 11-2 victory in seven innings.

In the second game of the day, against Concordia College, senior starter Damien Janet and reliever Dietch teamed up to hold the Cougars to just five hits. The game was tied at two in the bottom of the sixth when Bears senior designated hitter Joe Kelly laced a two-run double into the outfield, giving WU a lead it would not relinquish, as it went on to a 5-2 victory.

The Bears had another of their pitching aces on the mound in Sunday’s rematch against MSOE, and he did not disappoint. Trevor Young-Hyman tossed a complete game 7-0 shutout against the Raiders, holding them to only three hits and two walks and fanning eight. In support of Young-Hyman, Bears senior right fielder Ramos Mays reached base in all four of his plate appearances, including his first home run of the year, a two-run shot in the first inning.

“That [win] was really good. Trevor’s been sharp for us so far, with excellent stuff,” said Dietch.

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