The Biola Eagles men’s baseball team faced the Arizona Christian Firestorm and the Bethesda College Flames this past week, coming away from the four total games with two wins and two losses. They won the Friday and Saturday series against ACU, their first overall series win of the season, though they lost the out-of-conference matchup with the Bethesda Flames on Tuesday. This moves their Golden State Athletic Conference record to 4-11, while their overall record moves to 6-13.
The scores of the games against ACU varied greatly over the weekend. Biola won the first 11-3, lost the second 0-8 and won the third 2-0. The first game was the best all-around game for the Eagles. On the offensive side, they lit up ACU’s pitcher, Tommy Lay for seven runs off of 11 hits in 6.0 innings. Three of the next four pitchers for the Firestorm gave up at least one run, giving Biola their final total of 11 runs. On Biola’s side, senior Garrett Picha had a great game, throwing for 8.0 innings, giving up three runs off of four hits, but also getting 10 strikeouts.
The second game was a nightmare for the Eagles, as ACU’s pitcher Joel Klinkhammer shut down the Eagles bats and Biola’s pitcher, junior Eric Diomartich, gave up six runs off of seven hits in only 4 innings pitched. His replacement, freshman Sean McCarrell, gave up two more runs in his 3.1 innings on the mound. Junior Sean Rothfuss came in and effectively stopped the bleeding, but the damage had already been done.
The third game was not nearly as exciting on the offensive front, as Biola earned five hits to ACU’s two, compared to the 35 total for the first two games of the series. Freshman Micah Beyer pitched a masterful game, going 5.2 innings, getting six strikeouts and only allowing two hits but no runs. On the offensive front, senior Tanner Swire scored off of a sacrifice fly from junior Julian Jarrard in the bottom of the third. Then, in the sixth, sophomore Jeremy Barth crossed home off of a throwing error by the second baseman. Not a convincing way of winning, but good enough for the Eagles to come away from the series victorious.
The Eagles then faced Bethesda again on Tuesday, looking to get even after their last meeting ended in a 4-3 extra-innings loss. Bethesda had others plans and got on the board early with three runs in the top of the third off of sophomore Jesse Yancosek. Bethesda’s pitcher played an excellent game, throwing 5 innings, giving up four hits but getting eight strikeouts. Bethesda expanded their lead with a run each in the seventh and eighth innings before Biola finally got on the board in the bottom of the ninth. Sophomore Jimmy Gallarda hit an RBI single to bring home Swire, then junior Julian Jarrard came home after a wild pitch. That was all the Eagles would get and ended up losing 5-2. Now they turn their thoughts to what they can learn and improve upon from these games.
“We just have to improve on our mental game,” said Gallarda. “We have the physical talent to be one of the best teams in the conference, but now we just need to go out, have fun and play loose.”
The Eagles face San Diego Christian in a home series throughout the weekend. The first game starts on Friday, Feb. 27 at 2 p.m.
