Central recap

After a rough Friday night game, our guys responded by beating one of the best pitchers in the Iowa Conference in Game 1 of a DH on Saturday.  Brett Mahan, a senior LHP, has given us fits for the last four years and we finally were able to beat him.  The way we played in this game was a testament to just how mature our guys have become.  After a sound beating on Friday night, a game in which we gave our opponent way too many base runnersl, Christian Dekker put up another great performance on the hill for us.  Dekker, only a sophomore, has emerged as a legitimate number 1 pitcher in our conference.  In fact he now has two wins in his career, and both wins are against Central.  Christian should be 4-0 this year, but has suffered some tough no-decisions.  The team is 4-0 in games in which he has pitched more than 1 inning which is the more important statistic.

Back to the game, I thought going into the first game on Saturday that whoever won the first game would win the second game.  It was just a gut-feeling, one that I usually don't get.  It made for a sleepless Friday night, as I knew we were going to face Mahan.  But after Michael Stephenson walked and stole 2nd, we took a chance and let Michael steal 3rd with 2 outs.  He got a great jump and after the catcher threw the ball into left field, we were up 1-0 in the bottom of the first.  A couple pitches later, Brandon Pietrzyk hit a 2-strike curveball over the right field fence to put us up 2-0.  At that point, I knew this team was ready to put Friday's game out of their mind.  We played a sound game defensively, and put up another run in the sixth inning to win the game 3-0. 

In between games, we could tell that the guys were ready for game 2.  As good as Central was, I don't think anyone on our side thought we were going to lose that 2nd game.   In the 3rd inning, we erupted for six runs to take a 7-3 lead.  We finally bunched some hits together and ran the bases aggressively and got into Central's bullpen.  We finished the game strong and won 11-4.  It was one of the first times of the season, where we got a lead and extended it.

In all, it was a great weekend.  This team has a lot of special qualities, and Saturday proved that to me.  We have to make sure that we focus on getting better as a team, rather than worrying about winning.  I think everyone enjoyed the way we played on Saturday, and we didn't worry about what the scoreboard looked like. 

I look forward to our DH with Dubuque on Wednesday.  We will play at Carroll Stadium at 3:30.  It wil be a tough task for us, as UD didn't play conference games over the weekend.  The next week will be a tough one as we play seven conference games, one non-conference game, and 2 JV games in the next six days.  We will learn a lot about ourselves to say the least. 

Go Beavers!