Junior Nick Turner pitches at the Feb 14, 2012 game against Cal State Dominguez Hills. Unfortunately, Eagles lost 7-9. | Job Ang/THE CHIMES
After starting off the season 3-1 the Biola baseball team ran into some trouble, dropping four of their last five games.
Eagles lose three, win one during tough stretch
The past week started off well for the Eagles, who defeated California State University San Bernardino 8-5 at home. Seniors Vinnie Fayard and Nick Covyeau went yard for Biola and contributed critical at-bats in a three-run seventh inning that propelled the Eagles to victory.
Future Golden State Athletic Conference team Arizona Christian University gave the Eagles trouble in a three game stretch over two days in which the Firestorm took the first two games 7-4 and 9-3, with Biola salvaging the trip and winning game three 6-4.
Fayard, along with senior Mac Sullivan, carried the team on the trip, with Sullivan going four-for-five with five RBIs and Fayard going six-for-12 with three RBIs.
Biola came home for a make-up game against California State University Los Angeles that ended in a very lopsided 20-6 defeat for the Eagles.
Ryan shows rust in loss
A shaky start from Biola starting pitcher senior Kevin Ryan and an 11-run second inning for CSULA was enough to drop the Eagles to 4-4 overall on the season.
Ryan was rocked for 13 runs off 13 hits and lasted only 1.1 innings.
CSULA sent 14 men to the plate in their explosive second inning, which was capped off by a grand slam from David Compton and a two run blast by Daniel Duran.
Fayard led the Eagles, going two-for-three with three RBIs. Biola also received solid relief help from sophomore Erick Allen, and juniors J.T. Mickelson and Karl Stuck, who tossed a scoreless inning of relief each.
Biola concluded the week with another tough game, losing 9-7 to California State University Dominguez Hills.
Junior pitcher Nick Turner continued his hot streak, going six innings and giving up one run off two hits while striking out seven. Just as they did against Arizona Christian, the rest of the team let Turner’s strong performance go for naught.
The Eagles carried a 6-3 lead into the ninth, but that was when the wheels came off the track.
Defense troubles Eagles in loss
After tossing a scoreless eighth, sophomore Javier Martinez stayed in to close out the game, but he failed to retire a batter, allowing four hits and six runs. Of the six runs, only two were earned as the Eagles committed two errors in the inning.
“We didn’t play defense. We’ve been good all year but we struggled today,” Fayard said.
Biola is currently in the middle of a stretch of 10 games in 10 days and the fatigue is setting in.
“We haven’t had practice in over a week and it showed today,” Fayard said.
Turner leads the team in innings pitched and strikeouts while posting a sterling ERA of 1.96. Covyeau has been on a tear lately, smacking four home runs and driving in nine RBIs with a .406 batting average through the first nine games. Fayard is hitting .389 with a homer and nine RBIs of his own.
The Eagles will try to get back on track when they head to Redding, Calif., for a stretch of four games over the weekend of Feb. 16-18, two against the University of British Columbia and two against Simpson University.
