Biola baseball had a disappointing start to the conference season last weekend, losing their first GSAC game of the year to San Diego Christian, 5-2 and the injury of their starting pitcher. However, they came back in the second game of the doubleheader, pounding the Hawks 10-1.
The Eagles scored a run in the first inning of game one at home on Saturday, and one in the last. But they scraped together just four scattered hits on the day, off of San Diego ace Lance Janke. He kept the Eagles guessing, striking out five and walking none.
Junior Derek Dietzen started the game for Biola, tossing 4-1/3 innings, allowing four earned runs on eight hits. The bullpen kept the Eagles in the game, surrendering just one run over 4-2/3 innings, led by senior Josh Baas who threw 3-1/3 scoreless, relieving Dietzen.
The Eagle offense could not put anything together all day, most notably going down in order in the 6th, 7th, and 8th innings, giving the series opener to the Hawks.
In game two, senior Jimmy Johnson threw masterfully. He tossed a complete game, allowing just one run on seven hits, while striking out three. He improved to 2-0 on the year in the 10-1 victory.
The offense came alive, racking up nine runs in the second inning to put the game out of reach, thanks to six hits and three San Diego errors.
Biola suffered a much bigger loss than their game one defeat against San Diego on Saturday when their number two starter, Derek Dietzen suffered a season ending injury to his throwing elbow. Dietzen, who underwent Tommy John surgery three years ago, will be sidelined for the year due to renewed complications with the same issue.
“Losing Dietzen really hurts. It’s a big setback,” said junior Charlie Gausepohl, who will be most affected by Dietzen’s injury, as he moves up in the rotation to fill the void.
“With Johnson, Albert and Diezten as our top three, we had a very strong rotation,” said Gausepohl, who entered the season slated as the club’s number four starter. He will now see starts every week in the three spot, with Josh Baas filling in as the number four, moving up from his projected long relief role.
The Eagle’s pitching staff is the team’s finest feature thus far this season. Their ERA as a team is 1.90, and opponents are batting just .224 against them. Gausepohl is disappointed to lose Dietzen, but is confident the staff will continue to provide quality innings.
“It hurts, but we are going to be just fine,” he said.
He pointed to the performance from freshman Bobby O’Neill in Tuesday’s game against San Marcos, where he picked up his first collegiate win.
“We can still be successful this season, we are just going to have to work a little bit harder as a team,” Dietzen said.
The Biola offense continued to put up bunches of runs in their non-conference game against Cal State San Marcos at home on Tuesday. The Eagle’s came away with a 17-5 victory, scoring four runs in the second inning and nine in the third to run away with the game early.
Junior David West led the Eagle’s offensively, going 3-3, with two RBI’s, scoring four runs. Freshman DJ Harbeson added some excitement, with his first collegiate hit, a solo home run to dead center field in the eighth.
The Eagle’s played six different pitchers, with freshman Bobby O’Neill picking up the win on three scoreless innings.
Biola hit the road for the first time in conference play and suffered their second GSAC loss of the season at Vanguard on Wednesday. They were shutout 4-0 by Lion junior Richard Jessup. The Eagles had just five hits on the day, and did little to support starter junior Brian Albert once again. He picked up his second tough loss of the year.
The win is Vanguard’s first in conference play, improving their GSAC record to 1-2, the same as Biola. The Eagles return to action on Saturday, playing host to conference rival Point Loma Nazarene in a doubleheader. First pitch of game one is at 11 a.m.
