Despite building early leads in all three games of the home tournament, the baseball team (1-2) was not able to survive the late innings in the Friday and Saturday games. The starting pitching for the Pack was on point while the middle relief struggled, partially due to the cold weather as the high for the weekend was 53 degrees, according to coach Elliott Avent.
“We’ve been fortunate enough this preseason to pitch a lot of warm weather,” Avent said. “It’s a little more difficult for them to pitch with the coldness out there. And we were running a lot of young arms out there – I thought they did a good job but it didn’t always work out.”
In the Friday game, the Pack surrendered a lead in the eighth inning to the Rhode Island Rams(1-2). Starting pitcher Jake Buchanan pitched five innings, allowing two runs on four hits and striking out four. A five-run rally off freshman right-hander Cory Mazzoni gave the Rams a lead they would not surrender.
Saturday, three-run sixth and eighth innings led the Xavier Musketeers (2-1) to an 8-3 victory over the Pack. Right-handed junior Sam Brown got the start for the Wolfpack and pitched five innings, giving up two runs on six hits and striking out two. The left-handed redshirt junior Alex Sogard pitched two and a third innings giving up six runs on four hits, striking out two and walking two.
Yesterday, preseason All-American left-handed junior Jimmy Gillheeney got the start and the win over the Broncos of Santa Clara (2-1). Gillheeney pitched six innings, giving up one run on four hits while striking out seven and only walking one. The bullpen pitched four innings, allowing four hits and two runs striking out two and walking none. Gillheeney, who was a closer last season but did not get to pitch in the postseason due to an undisclosed reason, was excited to get back on the mound for the Pack in the starter role.
“It was a great feeling to get back out there. Baseball is my love, my dream and just to get back out there is a great feeling,” Gillheeney said. “I’ve always loved to start – I’ve started most of my life. I feel very comfortable getting back into the role.”
Freshman Pratt Maynard had a standout performance this weekend that was capped off by a stellar performance Sunday against Santa Clara. He went 4-5 Sunday with four RBI’s, a homerun and a stolen base. He was also behind the plate Sunday catching for Gillheeney.
“Starting out on Friday, I saw I was in the lineup, and I didn’t know what to say,” Maynard said. “I came up [to] my first at bat with the bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the first, and I hit a single and coach Ward had a big smile on his face and he said, ‘it feel good don’t it,’ and I was like, ‘oh yeah.’ Today I hit my first home run, and it was unbelievable.”
While the Pack did not come out of the weekend with the record that it wanted, the lessons the team picked up were priceless, according to Avent.
“Wins and losses, they just kind of come. We didn’t think we were going to go undefeated,” Avent said. “Somewhere along the line, what we learned in those first two days is going to help win a lot more than those first two games. It’s better when you can learn some things from an ugly win, but if you can learn from a loss, then so be it.”
