After a disappointing spring trip, we had our first home series of the year against Western Illinois. We knew going into the weekend that we needed to get off to a good start at home because all good teams win on their own field. The first game came down to our final at-bat. With the score tied 3-3 in the ninth, we loaded the bases with an error, sac bunt, and two walks. Ryan Durant came up with the game on the line. In his previous at-bats Ryan struggled. But like all good hitters, he did not let his previous at-bats dictate his approach with the game on the line. He had a well placed, infield hit to plate the winning run to make the final score 4-3.

The second game, alike the first game, came down to our last at-bat. With each teams offense matching each other, we again loaded the bases and got a bases loaded walk to plate our first run in the 9th. Mike Corbeil came off the bench to pinch hit with the game on the line. Corbeil hit a line shot between second and third, that plated the tying and winning run. We found ourselves for the second game in a row, jumping around in the middle of the field celebrating our walk off victory. Walk off wins can really build momentum heading into the next day or even week, and we looked to get our first sweep of the year.

Sunday’s game we really showed up to play in all phases of the game. Phil Schreiber threw a career high, seven innings, to earn his second win of the year. Our offense pounded out 14 hits and 11 runs and our defense made enough plays behind Phil to walk away with our first sweep of the year, winning 11-2. We really needed to come out strong that weekend to build some confidence heading into our two midweek games and our first conference weekend at Michigan State.

With our first conference weekend just a few days away we had two midweek games against South Dakota State. They came into the series with offensive numbers that you have in video games, so we knew we were going to have our hands full. With the wind blowing out, the first game was a very offensive game.  Each team had 16 hits with a total of 22 runs crossing the plate. Unfourtunately we came up on the short end of the score, losing 12-10. SDSU had a solo homerun in the 8th to take the lead 10-9, followed with two more runs in the top half of the 9th to extend their lead to 12-9. We tried to rally in the 9th like we did against Western Illinois, but managed only one run in the bottom half, losing the game 12-10.

The final game of the series was another come from behind win for the Hawks. Zach Robertson started for us and put up career numbers. Robertson went a career high, seven innings, and struck out a career high ten batters. Zach really showed what he was capable of doing to hitters, keeping them off balance at the plate the whole game. Although he did not get the win, Zach pitched well enough to keep the game close and he gave us a chance to win it late like we did. Michael Jacobs earned the win, throwin one inning allowing one run on the night. We scored three runs in the bottom of the 8th to take a 6-5 lead. Kevin Lee got his fourth save of the season closing out the ninth that featured a web gem by Andrew Host in right field.

Winning 4 of our first 5 home games was huge for us. We needed to get off to a fast start at home, to gain some confidence heading into our conference schedule. Our first conference weekend was on the road against Michigan State. Heading into the weekend, the Spartans were on an 11 game winning streak and playing some pretty good ball. We knew going into the series we were going to have to elevate our play in order to take the first conference series. Friday night was a great ball game. Jarred Hippen got his first complete game of his career to get his second win of the year. Hippen really showed how far he has improved his mental approach to the game. He did not let mistakes behind him affect the way he was going to pitch. He has really matured as a pitcher and we look for him to continue his progression to being one of the best pitchers in the conference as the year goes on. Ryan Durant and Mike McQuillan lead our offense. Durant went 2-4 with two doubles and three RBI’s. McQuillan went 2-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. For our offense to be successful, we need to get runners on for those two hitters. If we do that we should have no problem’s putting up runs with them hitting with guys on base. We scored two runs in the top of the 8th to take the lead 5-3. Hippen shut the door from that point on to cap off his complete game.

Looking to build off of Friday night, we showed up to the park with the chance of taking our first conference series. The only problem was we did not show up ready to take it to them. We were very passive in all aspects of the game. As a team we were not where we needed to be to win the game. They completely took control of the game early and we had no answer for it. Their pitcher kept us off balance at the plate the entire time he was in. We had two errors that we could not over come in the field and ended up losing 16-2.

With how bad we played on Saturday, we still had a chance to take the series with a win on Sunday. The first three innings of the game it looked like the game could go either way. We scored a run in the first and third inning but MSU responded with runs in the second and third to tie the score 2-2 after three innings. MSU broke the game open in the fouth inning scoring 6 runs, followed with a 12 spot in the fifth. They added 6 more runs in their last two at bats to put up 26 runs against us. We needed to score a few touch downs in the top half of the 9th in order to mount a comeback. We scored 9 runs in the 9th but it was not enough to make the game close, we lost 26-11.

With our first conference weekend behind us we have a lot to improve on. The biggest thing for our team in order for us to be successful the rest of the year, we need to learn how to play on back to back days. We have fallen into this trend of playing good one game then taking the next couple games off, before waking up and playing good for one more game. That goes for all aspects of our team. When we pitch well, we don’t play defense. When we hit we don’t pitch. As a player it is very frustrating. With that said, we still have time to get back on track. Once we learn how to play on a daily basis I think we should start seeing the win’s stack up.

Our game against Western Illinois tonight (4/6) got canceled due to rain. We are going to make the game up on another day. We travel to Des Moines tomorrow to take on the Iowa Cubs (AAA minor league team of the Chicago Cubs). We are really looking forward to this opportunity to play against the pros. Some of these guys are going to be up with the big league team by the end of the year so it’s going to be a great learning experience for us. As a collegiate baseball player, getting the chance to play pros is an experience that I will never forget.

Stay tuned for results from the Iowa Cubs game and our first home conference weekend against Illinois.

GO HAWKS!!!