CEU baseball wins three out of four against CNCC, drop three games to Southern Colorado
The Eagles racked up three big wins against CNCC, and went one for four against a tough Southern Nevada side.
The CEU Eagles started their recent home stand, as the Colorado Northwestern Spartans made their way into Eagle country. The Spartans took an early lead by scoring on a sacrifice fly midway through their first at bat. After three outs, CEU came in to try their bats against the CNCC defense. The Eagles went down in short order, three up and three down.
This archived article was written by: Robert Hanson
The Eagles racked up three big wins against CNCC, and went one for four against a tough Southern Nevada side.
The CEU Eagles started their recent home stand, as the Colorado Northwestern Spartans made their way into Eagle country. The Spartans took an early lead by scoring on a sacrifice fly midway through their first at bat. After three outs, CEU came in to try their bats against the CNCC defense. The Eagles went down in short order, three up and three down.
Marcus Hamatake, CEU’s starting pitcher humiliated the Spartan offense in the beginning of the second with a forced ground out and two K’s. Neither team brought a runner home again until the top of the fifth.
The Eagles walked two hitters, got one out at first and walked another to load the bases with one down. The Spartans replied with a single to score the lead runner. Then with a sacrifice fly to right, CNCC brought in their third run of the game, but in an overly aggressive play, got tossed out at home trying for their fourth. The Eagles were once again silent at the plate as they made their attempt to recuperate from the duel-point inning of the Spartans.
The sixth inning saw a pitching change as Jayson Madsen was brought in to relieve Hamatake. The inning was started with a Spartan single, followed by a runner reaching on a pitcher’s error, and the lead runner safe at third on a shortstop error. The next batter went down swinging. Then a single moved the runner from second, to score an RBI. Another Sac, Fly brought the second out, and the fifth run for CNCC. The lead runner being stationed at second took third on a wild pitch, and proceeded to score on a single. The Spartans were finally shut down with a three-strike punch-out.
The plate was once again deserted, until the Eagles last stand in the bottom of the seventh, in which Craig Lanzarotta doubled with two down. Aided with a third baseman’s error, Pete Babalis reach base and Lanzarotta took third. Babalis was not finished and made the error sting deep into the Spartans as he proceeded on to second. Colton Ray legged out a pitchers error, which scored Lanzarotta and moved Babalis to third. With runners at the corners Tyler Neilson stepped up and belted an RBI single moving Ray to second base. Tyler Jones then, knocked a double with two runs batted in.
Unfortunately that was all that CEU could muster in their amazing two-out rally, losing the game 6-4
In the second Friday game, it was in the botton half of the first inning that the action began. Leading off the game, Ray reached on a pitchers error, then with a zip, stole second. An Error committed by the Spartan right fielder sent Cole Robinson to second, after reaching first on the error and Ray to third. Greg Farnsworth singled scoring both runners.
It took the Spartans until the third to answer scoring a run of their own and cutting the gap in half. Ryan Whitehead started off drawing a walk in the fourth and then hustling to second on a wild pitch. Another pitcher’s error found Jones first base all the while Whitehead hustled around third and came in to score for the Eagles. After a ground out, advancing Jones to third, a wild pitch left the plate open for the run. Robinson proceeded in singling, stealing not only second but taking third as well. The Third out came before he was able to cross home plate.
Scoring was halted until the sixth, when CNCC made a comeback attempt scoring two, to leave the score 4-3 Eagles heading the game. But CEU wasn’t going to let two runs go unanswered and took them back by bringing two of their own in. The Eagles knocked two doubles, first from Ray then Crosby Oldham rattled the stadium with a second to score Ray and Brett McBride who had walked. This was all she wrote for action of that Friday with the Eagles winning 6-3
Now with the winning momentum on the Eagles side, Colorado tried their hardest but couldn’t over come the pumped Eagles. Ray started the Eagle offence off with a single and a stolen base, reaching third on a passed ball. Jones got the RBI, reaching on an E6. With the aid of the combined offence and defense CEU took the lead and held it until the end winning 8-3. Then the two teams took to the diamond for the final game of the series. This game proved to be a scoring fest, as CEU pulled out a one run victory, defeating CNCC 15-14.
As for the next week-end Southern Nevada came up to Price looking for a few wins, CEU stood steadfastly in their way. Losing a couple of hard fought battles on Friday 5-1 and 4-0. Saturday rolled around and the same fate was givento CEU, losing their first game 7-2, but gave Southern Nevada something to think about as they over came Nevada 2-1 in the final bout of this series. CEU’s victory was met with an unsportsmanlike move worthy of Mike Tyson and Roberto Alomar, as Nevada turned up their noses, turned their backs and walked out without the traditional end-of-game handshake.
CEU action proceeds again Friday April 21 and Saturday April 22 as the Golden Eagles of Southern Idaho Soar in to take on CEU. This will take place at the CEU baseball field at 1 p.m. on Friday and noon on Saturday.
