Biola’s baseball team finds themselves back on the winning side after a great offensive performance, which resulted in an 11-3 victory in the first game of the series against Arizona Christian Firestorm. The Eagles came in with a 2-10 Golden State Athletic Conference record and the Firestorm came in with a 3-9 record. With Biola’s win, both teams move to 3-10, but the Eagles take over fifth place in GSAC, with their overall record sitting above Firestorm.
Senior Garrett Picha started on the mound for the Eagles, and though he had a few tough starts this season, he played extremely well. He pitched eight full innings, racking up 10 strikeouts, only allowing three runs. By the time he was replaced, Biola already had what would be the winning score of 11-3, giving Picha the win and increasing his record to 2-2.
On the offensive side, the Eagles started early and never slowed down. Senior Rob Groeschell got the first RBI of the day after he grounded out to shortstop, bringing home senior Paul Slater and advancing senior Tanner Swire to second. In the next at-bat, an RBI single from sophomore Jeremy Barth brought Swire home.
ACU responded in the top of the second with a solo home-run from Ryan Lischer, but the Eagles quickly expanded their lead when junior Julian Jarrard flied out to center field, bringing home Slater from third. Swire set up the next scoring play as he stole second base, which was his first of three stolen bases on the afternoon. Barth knocked him home again with another RBI single, bringing the score to 4-1.
The Firestorm scored again in the top of the fourth, as Matthew Mara got a free walk across home plate off of a balk by Picha. The teams then alternated runs in the next two innings, as Jarrard hit the Eagles’ only home-run of the afternoon in the bottom of the fifth, followed by a Firestorm home run in the top of the sixth, and concluded with a single from junior Andres Rodriguez in the bottom of the sixth that knocked home Barth. That brought the score to 6-3, but the Eagles were far from finished.
The seventh proved the biggest inning for Biola, as they scored the remaining five runs. The first of the five came off a play that saw Slater stealing home base, possibly taking advantage of freshman Colton Wheeler’s inexperience, as ACU had just put him in as pitcher. That brought the score to 7-3 and allowed Swire to advance to second. The biggest play of the inning was a three-run double by senior Andrew Frank, bringing home Swire, Barth, and Rodriguez. Freshman catcher Rawley Hughes added to the action, getting an RBI single that brought home Frank. Freshman Austin Jones came in to pinch-run for Hughes, but was caught stealing second for the third out, ending the inning. The damage had already been done and the score now read 11-3, a very difficult deficit to overcome for any team, as Firestorm were unable to score any more runs.
This game ended a six-game losing streak for the Eagles. While they are glad to be on the winning track, they know they must still continue to work hard to keep it that way.
“We’re not satisfied with that,” said Barth. “We’re gonna keep on wanting more, and we’re gonna work hard to get more.”
The Eagles’ continue the series with ACU tomorrow with a double-header. The first game starts at 11 am at Eagles Diamond, followed by the second at 2 pm.
