Point Park’s baseball team closed the weekend with a 2-3 record after traveling to Auburndale, Florida, to compete in the RussMatt Tournament. The tournament started on Friday and ended on Monday.
On Friday, Point Park faced a doubleheader versus the Wayne State Warriors (Mich.) in the main field of the Lake Myrtle Complex, winning the first matchup and losing the second.
During the first matchup, the Pioneers held a one-run lead against the Warriors for the first three innings. Point Park increased that lead at the top of the fourth with another run.
The Warriors struck back at the bottom of the fifth with their own RBI after a bunt that caused a chain effect of runners advancing bases. At the top of the sixth, a sacrifice fly awarded Point Park yet another RBI.
With the last inning of the game came two more runs, one for the Pioneers and the other for the Warriors. The Pioneers breached their final run of the game at the top of the seventh with an unearned run after a wild pitch from the Warriors. Wayne State got its last run with another RBI at the bottom of the seventh. The game ended with a score of 4-2.
After that game wrapped up at around 12 p.m., the players had roughly an hour to prepare for their next matchup.
Wayne State went into the second match in search of redemption and did not leave without it. The first inning ended with two runners batted in for the Warriors and one unearned run for the Pioneers.
The second inning was where the scales truly shifted to the Warriors side after Warrior Mason McGuire hit a home run, leading to four runners batted in. The Pioneers would not gain another run until the fifth inning, but at that point the Warriors were ahead 12-1.
During the fifth inning, the Pioneers made valiant attempts to catch up to the Warriors, but it ended up being too little, too late. Point Park, with four RBIs and one sacrifice fly, lost the game 12-6.
On Saturday, the Pioneers were scheduled for two more games, the first matchup was against Ashland and the second against Gannon.
Point Park started off on relatively good standings versus Ashland, being up by two runs for the second and third innings. The Ashland Eagles came back in the fourth inning with three runs batted in, and the Pioneers answered by tying it up in the sixth inning with a home run, leaving the score at 3-3.
The eighth inning brought out a strong offensive play from the Eagles when they ran in a total of six players, which led to the game’s end score of 9-3.
The Pioneers continued this losing streak in the next game as Gannon dominated throughout the ball game. At the end of the third inning, the Pioneers stood scoreless, and the Gannon Golden Knights had already reached 10 on the scoreboard. In the fourth inning, Point Park saw its first runs via three RBIs, two coming after a home run from Jordon Campbell. The Golden Knights continued to showcase their strong offense with two more RBIs in the fourth inning.
Point Park’s last run of the game came in the fifth inning after Jared Campbell hit a home run. Gannon proceeded to get two more RBIs, one in the fifth and the other in the seventh. The game ended with a dominant win from Gannon at 14-4.
On Sunday, Point Park went up against Wayne State College (Neb.) at 10:15 a.m., looking for a win after three games lost.
The Pioneers saw themselves in a nice spot at the end of the first inning with six runs total, one on a wild pitch, three RBIs and two unearned runs. Point Park stayed in the lead throughout the whole game, and the Wildcats continued to trail after that strong offensive first inning. The game ended with a score of 9-5, with those five runs coming primarily in the third and sixth inning for the Wildcats.
Point Park closed tournament play on Monday against Minnesota State.
Point Park is set to start Mountain East Conference matchups in Buckhannon and Elkins, W. Va., on Saturday and Sunday. Both days will consist of doubleheaders. The first is against West Virginia Wesleyan and the second is against Davis & Elkins.
