Baseball Rallies For The Series Victory
The Providence Christian College baseball team has battled through what many would argue is the programs toughest preseason schedule to date, and they have continued to persevere through adversity. The teams they have faced have an overall record of 28-11, and two of the teams are ranked nationally in the top 25 with a third receiving votes. Coach Cody Walter created the schedule intentionally to challenge his new look program early and often. Walter said, "From day one, we knew this tough non-conference schedule would be a challenge. There has been a big emphasis on learning in these games. If we haven't learned something from these nationally ranked opponents, then we have failed." While building confidence is important, learning through the gauntlet of tough competition is equally as important, and that they have done.
With ten games under the Sea Beggars belts, it is encouraging to see that in each series the team improved from one game to the next, building upon the lessons learned. The beauty of baseball is that each tomorrow presents a blank slate to reshape the narrative of the season for both individual players and teams alike. The teams have a clean slate but get to build upon what they have learned, and those lessons can have a quickly compounding effect in a 50 game season. The Sea Beggars are showing this great perspective and have not lost sight of their goals.
On February 4th-5th the Sea Beggars faced off against cross town opponent, California Technical Institute. The Friday game did not go as planned with the Beavers jumping on the board early with two home runs in the first inning. They added eleven more runs over the course of the next six innings, with the game ending in the 7th. However, games two and three of the series found the Beggars righting the ship with Trent Friesen (JR/La Mirada, CA) and Lee Atkinson Jr (JR/Adelanto, CA). leading the way on the mound in games two and three respectively. Andrew Brown (SO/Fresno, CA) led off the first inning of game one getting hit by a pitch and stealing second. Brown was advanced to third by Tucker Panarisi (SO/Santa Clarita, CA)'s sacrifice bunt and Cameron Martin (JR/Fairfield, CA) gave Providence the early lead with an RBI ground out to second base. Game one of the doubleheader finished in a 9-2 victory for the Sea Beggars and Cameron Martin finished with 3 RBI's while Dylan Irwin (FR/Monroe, OR) blasted a towering 3 run home run to centerfield for the first of his career. Trent Friesen pitched seven innings, giving up just two runs, and striking out eleven batters in an emphatic statement win for the Sea Beggars. Aiden Delgado finished the final two frames allowing one hit while striking out three.
Game two on Saturday was staffed by Lee Atkinson Jr., Cody Conkle (FR/Leander, TX), and Brennan Morales (SR/Hemet, CA), with the game finishing in eight innings and the Sea Beggars coming out on top 11-5 to secure the series win. Brown again got the Sea Beggars going early with a single, and advanced to third off a single by Panarisi. Panarisi who moved to second off an errant throw, also scoring Brown, and giving the Beggars a 1-0 lead. Martin was then walked and Panarisi proceeded to score off a wild pitch. The Beggars jumped on the Beavers early and often, putting six runs on the board by the second inning. When asked about his contribution in the two games, Brown said, "It feels good to be a contributor to the team and watching the guys get rallied up. Having this confidence going into Hawaii as well as the rest of the season is going to be key to our success as a team." Between the two games on Saturday, Tucker Panarisi went five for nine, had an RBI, scored four times, and was walked once. Andrew Brown finished the series going 5-8 with three walks and he scored six runs.
The Sea Beggars hope to carry this momentum on the road this week as they load a plane on Thursday February 10th, to cross the Pacific Ocean to O'ahu, Hawaii. The Beggars will face off against NCAA Division II Hawaii Pacific in double headers on both Friday and Saturday. For those that are not able to make the trip, Hawaii Pacific will have live stats at https://hpusharks.com/sidearmstats/baseball/summary and at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/hpusharks/ they will be streaming the games on a pay-per-view video stream ($7.95 a game) at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/hpusharks/. Log on to follow the action. Go Sea Beggars!