Merchant Marine

On Friday, April 29 we left Susquehanna for Long Island to play Merchant Marine.  After the four hour drive over we woke up on Saturday for a double header.  Coming into the weekend we needed to win two out of the three games to secure ourselves a playoff position.  If Juniata lost any of their games then we would only have to win one to move on.  The first game close the whole way through and we eventually took a 6 to 5 lead going into the last inning.  Unfortunately Merchant Marine scored 2 runs in the bottom of the last inning to take game one.  We came back in game and lost another tough one 8 to 4.  We found out that Juniata had lost one of their so all we had to do was to win Sunday's game to make it the playoffs.  We were down 3 to 0 early in the game.  But came back and had a 10 run inning to take a big league.  Things got close towards the end but we ended up pulling out the victory 14 to 13.  Next weekend we will be playing in the Landmark Conference Playoffs at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.  It is a double elimination tournament.  We are the number 4 seed for the tournament so we will be playing the number 1 seeded Moravian.

Senior Day

Every year on the last home game of the season we celebrate Senior Day.  For all our seniors it is the last home game that they will play in their career.  Before the game starts every senior on our team is called onto the field with members of their family.  They are given a jersey and are recongnized for their accomplishments that they have acheived over the past 4 years as baseball players at Susquehanna University.  This is a really important game to the team because everyone wants to get the win for the seniors in their last home game.  We played Albright University on April 25.  It was a game of a lot of hits and a lot runs.  Unofortunately we good not pull the game out.  The final score was 17 to 9.  Our Seniors are infiedler Justin Portsline, infielder Geoff Hunter, infielder Eric Tuomisto, pitcher Joe Schurig, pitcher Andy Heregan, and pitcher Keith Needham.  Here they are pictured below

Juniata

Coming into the weekend against Juniata we knew we had to win the series in order to stand a chance in making the playoffs.  Us and Juniata shared the same record in the beginning of the weekend.  On April 22 we played a double header.  We won the first game 6 to 1 and won the second game 6 to 3.  The next day we came back to play the nine inning game.  The game was extremely close but ended up losing 6 to 4.  Going into the last conference weekend we needed to win two games.  Or if Juniata lost one of their games we would only have to win one game.

Catholic

On Firday April 15 we traveled to Washington, D.C. to play Catholic University.  This was the biggest series of the year so far for us.  The weather for Saturday was not promising at all so the double header got moved to Sunday and the nine inning game got moved to Saturday.  The game time also got moved up to 9 a.m. to tyr and avoid the rain.  Sure enough, one inning into the game rain started to pour down.  We got through 2 and 2/3 innings before we had to stop playing.  On Sunday we came back and had to play 21 innings of baseball.  We picked up the first game with a 7 to 4 lead.  The game went back and forth with several lead changes.  We ended up losing a tough game 12 to 11.  We came right back the next game and held a 5 to 4 lead going into the last inning.  However, Catholic scored 2 runs in the bottom of the last inning to take game 2.  We also lost the last game 11 to 5.  This put us in a tough spot to make the playoffs.  We would have to win the two last series of the year in order to make them.  These are pictures of me picthing during the Catholic series

Drew

On the weekend of April 9th we played Drew University.  This was a big series for us because winning three games would put us in good position to make the playoffs.  We played a double header on Saturday and took both from Drew.  We won 10 to 1 and 7 to 1.  We came back the next day play the final game of the series.  Going into the bottom of the last inning we were losing 3 to 2.  With a runner on second base and one sophomore, outfielder Kenny Kayama came to the plate.  On the second pitch of the at bat Kenny homered to left center field and we won the game 4 to 3.  Sweeping the series was huge for us.

This Weekend

             The upcoming conference weekend is huge for us.  We play Drew University who beat two out of the three games last season.  We have a double header on Saturday with the first games starting at one o'clock and the second game starting about a half hour or so after the first one finishes.  We then play a nine inning game against them on Sunday at twelve.  To put ourselves in good position to make the playoffs we will have to sweep at least two of the four remaining series that we have left and we are hoping that it starts with this weekend.  Unfortunately like I said in my other blog post the weather is not looking so good for this weekend but we are really hoping to get all three games in and hopefully three wins. 

Weather

   The weather has been really putting a damper on our season.  It has recently been very rainy and much colder than anticipated.  There's nothing worse then having to play games in the cold and rain.  Due to weather one of our games had to be cancelled and another postoponed.  Also during the Scranton weekend our double header had to be pushed back so we were not able to do an overnight trip but instead had to drive up there two serparate times.  The game we played against them on Monday eventually got called in the eighth inning of our game becasuse a thunder storm moved in and it got too dark out.  There is expected rain for this next weekend agaisnt Drew University.  We are hoping that we can have just one game without any rain.