Biola had a full schedule of conference play last week, coming away (don’t know until after today’s game). The offense was shaky yet again, and the pitching staff had its first breakdown of the season thus far, but Biola battled to come away with a successful week.
“We have been having a lot of tough luck. We are hitting the ball hard, but it’s right at people …,” Coach Verhoeven said in reaction to the club’s play over the course of the week.
Last Thursday the Eagles played host to Vanguard, with hopes of enacting revenge on Point Loma’s Sea Lions who shut them out the week before. Biola threw junior transfer Brian Albert, who bid for his first win. He battled all day, pitching out of trouble often, en route to the victory. He threw seven innings, allowing five runs on seven hits.
The Eagles won the contest 8-5, thanks in large part to the bat of junior Nick Rotkowitz. He went 4-5 on the day, scoring two runs and knocking in one. Biola got the bats going early, scoring three runs in the first, two coming on a home run to right field off the bat of senior catcher Kris Cook.
The Biola bullpen threw two innings of shutout ball to secure the victory, capped by an impressive close by sophomore Steven Alexander. He struck out the side in the ninth to get his first save of the season.
The Eagles headed to Master’s College on Saturday for a doubleheader match up with a much-improved Mustang team. Biola came away with a split, winning the first game in exciting fashion, 2-1, and losing the second thanks to a pitching staff meltdown, 9-3.
Biola sent senior Jimmy Johnson to the mound in game one, bidding for his fourth consecutive win to start the season. He threw a complete game, allowing one run on four hits, striking out 11.
“Jimmy has been outstanding, working ahead. It makes a big difference; he is such a command guy,” said Verhoven. “He is not walking people; his command is so much better this year.”
Johnson did not walk a single Mustang in his complete game victory.
The Biola offense was quiet most the day, scoring one run in the first inning, thanks to an error and a hit batsman, and one run in the eighth when junior Chris Foreman stole home.
“He saw an opening, and he went. The guy was in the windup, he rushed, panicked, and threw it away.”
Verhoeven said. “We had been talking about doing it for a couple weeks. I told him if we had two outs, he could try and take it, so that’s what he did.”
“I took a walking lead, and when he started his windup, I just took off,” Foreman said. “It was probably the most exciting thing I’ve ever done on the baseball field.”
The steal gave the Eagles a 2-1 lead, which was all Johnson needed to secure the victory.
The Eagles got on the board early in game two of the doubleheader, scoring a run in the second and a run in the third. But the Mustangs put up an eight spot in the bottom of the fourth.
Eagle starter junior Charlie Gausepohl, and his relief, junior Tim Nolan and senior Josh Baas, combined in the fourth to give up eight Mustang runs on four hits, five walks, two wild pitches and one hit batsman.
“It’s really the first time our pitching has broken down,” Verhoeven said of the fourth inning meltdown. “All year we’ve been pretty consistent.”
Biola’s team ERA is 3.16 on the season, the fifth best in the GSAC.
“Its kind of disappointing for it to happen then [because] it’s tough to go in there and win two games, and we had a shot at it,” Verhoeven said.
Biola plays host to the Concordia Eagles on Saturday in a doubleheader at home, first pitch at 11 a.m.
