2008 Woodie Awards
Baseball splits two against Shepherd, loses to Dukes
By Caleb Pardick
Rocket Editor-in-Chief
Issue date: 3/30/07 Section: Sports
"(On Tuesday) I really felt good, but they just seemed to find open spots where our guys weren't at," said Squeglia, who dropped to 1-2 on the season. "It's definitely not how I wanted to go into conference play, but I also understand that I was out there trying to get some work in for this weekend. That wasn't the way I wanted to do it."
Messer said he's not worried about Squeglia's confidence being shaken from Tuesday's shelling.
"(Tuesday) was like starting the season all over again for the pitchers," Messer said. "They had 20 hits and 14 runs, and you're not going to win a lot of games when your pitchers give up that many runs, but at the same time, we still have confidence that Chris can come out and do a great job for us.
"A lot of the hits were two-strike flares over the infield, but hey, they did the job and we didn't. But it was important that we didn't let them take both games from us."
In game two, junior left-hander Mark Tanner got the win, despite not being able to control his curveball. Tanner allowed just three hits and one run in five innings of work.
Tanner, who plunked three Shepherd batters with curveballs in the first three innings, said his lack of control forced him to stick with two pitches the rest of the way.
"I just couldn't find it with the curve," Tanner said. "I was just cutting it off too early every time, and it kept getting away from me. I just said 'forget it' and had to go fastball and changeup the rest of the way."
Offensively, the Rock exploded in the bottom of the third, plating six runs on five hits in the frame. An RBI triple by senior catcher Jim Eimiller and an RBI single by sophomore second baseman Kyle Smith, along with a Parsons double, accounted for the six Rock runs.
Parsons said his success, as well as the team's, came as a bit of a surprise, especially after a nine-day layoff since the team returned from its spring break trip to Florida.
"It's tough to play 11 games and then sit a week and then come back and play," Parsons said. "In the first game, I don't necessarily think our pitchers were getting hit that hard, but the balls just kept finding holes. But we did a complete 180 the second game. That's just how baseball is, though."
Messer said he's not worried about Squeglia's confidence being shaken from Tuesday's shelling.
"(Tuesday) was like starting the season all over again for the pitchers," Messer said. "They had 20 hits and 14 runs, and you're not going to win a lot of games when your pitchers give up that many runs, but at the same time, we still have confidence that Chris can come out and do a great job for us.
"A lot of the hits were two-strike flares over the infield, but hey, they did the job and we didn't. But it was important that we didn't let them take both games from us."
In game two, junior left-hander Mark Tanner got the win, despite not being able to control his curveball. Tanner allowed just three hits and one run in five innings of work.
Tanner, who plunked three Shepherd batters with curveballs in the first three innings, said his lack of control forced him to stick with two pitches the rest of the way.
"I just couldn't find it with the curve," Tanner said. "I was just cutting it off too early every time, and it kept getting away from me. I just said 'forget it' and had to go fastball and changeup the rest of the way."
Offensively, the Rock exploded in the bottom of the third, plating six runs on five hits in the frame. An RBI triple by senior catcher Jim Eimiller and an RBI single by sophomore second baseman Kyle Smith, along with a Parsons double, accounted for the six Rock runs.
Parsons said his success, as well as the team's, came as a bit of a surprise, especially after a nine-day layoff since the team returned from its spring break trip to Florida.
"It's tough to play 11 games and then sit a week and then come back and play," Parsons said. "In the first game, I don't necessarily think our pitchers were getting hit that hard, but the balls just kept finding holes. But we did a complete 180 the second game. That's just how baseball is, though."
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