Pitching staff leads baseball to 9-0 RSC

Senior pitcher Keenan Smith pitches in the snow during Point Park’s home opener Saturday against Cincinnati Christian

Written By Robert Berger, Co-News Editor

The Pioneer baseball team played their home opening series this past weekend as they swept conference opponent Cincinnati Christian to improve their conference record to 9-0.

“We are really happy with how the series went, it was a good weekend and we put everything together,” head coach Loren Torres said. “The pitching, the defense and the hitting.”

With snow falling at first pitch, junior Nicholas Beardsley started for the Pioneers in game one. Throwing six innings, Beardsley allowed only two hits and one unearned run through his appearance.

“We didn’t even think the field would be ready to play on for today but it was great being back out here,” Beardsley said following the game.

Keenan Smith threw two shutout innings in relief of Beardsley, allowing only one hit. Closing out the game in his second pitching appearance this year was sophomore Robelin Bautista.

“We need to keep going out and playing our normal baseball from here on out and keep doing what we need to do,” Beardsley said.

The only run for the Eagles came in the sixth inning. Beardsley gave up a walk to Cincinnati’s Micah McCray, who advanced to second and eventually crossed the plate on a throwing error from Point Park senior David Barefoot.

Offensively, game one was Point Park’s best of the 2018 season. Through nine innings, the Pioneers tallied a total of twenty hits, tying a season high. Four came off the bat of senior Richard Perez, who went 4-5 with one RBI. Senior Reynaldo Adames went 2-4 with a double and a triple. The Pioneers won the game 10-1.

“We’ve been going since fall, so the weather wasn’t too big of a factor today. It’s challenging but we went out and fought and still had a good day,” Torres said.

Junior Felix Castillo started game two on Friday while making his fourth appearance of the season. Through six innings, Castillo faced 23 batters and gave up one run on three hits. Sophomore Daryl Pino pitched in relief for the last inning and allowed just one hit while picking up one strikeout.

In the second game, the Pioneers broke scoring open in the third inning. Sophomore Cole Horew led off the inning by singling to left field. He advanced to second after his brother Jake Horew was hit by a pitch. The Horew brothers came in to score as senior Ben Herstine lined a single to centerfield scoring both.

Cole Horew scored another run in the fourth inning after hitting a two-run home run to left field. In total, Point Park tallied five runs in the seven inning contest, earning them a 5-1 victory.

The final two games of the four game series were played Sunday afternoon.

Junior Nick Bucci took the mound in the first contest as he held the Eagles to no hits through the first six innings. Bucci gave up just three hits and earned seven strikeouts on the day.

“It felt good to be throwing in nice weather,” Bucci said. “It wasn’t snowing like yesterday which was also nice.”

Junior Ryan Huber took over to close out the game and struck out two of three batters he faced.

Offensively, Point Park scored two runs in the first inning as J. Horew and senior Andres Herrera both crossed the plate on a single to right from Perez. The Pioneers notched four more runs in the fourth inning on just two hits.

In total, the Eagles gave up 10 walks to Point Park. To conclude scoring on the day, Point Park scored four more times in the fifth inning, completing the 10-0 final score.

With the fourth-and-final game of the series not counting towards the team’s conference record, junior Christian Negron took the mound in the final contest.

Negron threw for six innings and only gave up two hits while taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He registered eight strikeouts on the day and picked up the win.

Offensive efforts began in the first inning as the Pioneers tacked four runs on the board. C. Horew first scored on single to left from junior Eric Montero. After J. Horew and Herstine reached base to follow, Billy Kidd came to the plate and hit a three-run homerun to right field.

Point Park added another run to the board in the second inning. Adames lead off the inning with a triple to center. Two batters late, J. Horew hit a sacrifice fly to left scoring Adames.

Point Park also played a pair of non-conference games Monday afternoon facing Fisher College at home. The Pioneers dropped game one 5-1 as starter C. Horew tossed 4.1 innings and gave up four runs. Junior Addison Domingo pitched in relief giving up the other run.

Point Park answered back in game two and came out with a 5-1 victory. Junior Jake Forgrave pitched 3.1 innings in the winning effort while Domingo closed the final 3.2 innings giving up two hits and one earned run.

“Fischer will give us an opportunity to be battle tested,” Torres said after Saturday’s games. “I think we need more of that, better battles to see exactly where we are.”

The Pioneers’ 18-game winning streak came to an end in game one of a non-conference doubleheader with a 5-1 loss at home to Fisher College.

Point Park continues conference play this weekend at Green Tree Park, facing off against Asbury University in a three-game series.