The Baker University baseball team and Benedictine College were scheduled for a home and away doubleheader Saturday and Sunday, but it was Mother Nature that ended up being the toughest opponent for both teams.
Out of the four games that were scheduled, the teams were only able to complete one game and four-and-a-half innings of another before snow forced the game to be continued at a later date, still to be determined.
The Wildcats won the completed game 4-2 Sunday at Sauder Field.
“I thought we played really well,” sophomore Chase Dengel said. “We always kept good energy during the game, regardless of the weather, which was really cold and kind of crappy weather.”
Junior Chris Cummins notched his third victory of the season, while only allowing one earned run in six innings. Freshman James Gricol pitched a scoreless seventh inning to secure the victory for BU.
The victory improved the Wildcats’ conference record to 4-7. The ‘Cats are tied with Benedictine in the HAAC standings and are tied in the loss column with three other schools.
“All the teams are bunched up right now, so now that we are in division play, every victory is crucial,” head coach Phil Hannon said. “The victory (Sunday), I think it can catapult us and get us into a good rhythm to do some damage in the conference.”
BU jumped out to a 7-4 lead in the next game, but the Ravens scored three runs to tie the game 7-7 in the top of the fifth inning before the game was postponed.
“A lot of us were disappointed, but if you think about it, when we get to come back on a drier day, we will have nine outs to play with and they only get six,” senior Brandon Truitt said.
Despite the team not being able to come out and respond to the three runs by Benedictine, Hannon believes the game being postponed was the right choice and also works in the advantage of the Wildcats.
“The main concern was the surface of the playing field and the safety of the players,” Hannon said. “We had outfielders slipping and they had infielders that couldn’t field groundballs because the playing conditions were getting worse every few minutes.”
The weather finally cooperated with the Wildcats to play a non-conference doubleheader with the University of St. Mary Wednesday at Sauder Field.
The Spires edged out the ‘Cats 3-2 in game one in a 10-inning thriller.
The Wildcats bounced back in game two to defeat University of St. Mary by the same score of 3-2.
Baker will resume conference play Saturday and Sunday with a home and away doubleheader against Avila University.
The action will begin in Saturday in Kansas City, Mo., and then resume Sunday at Sauder Field. Both doubleheaders will start at 1 p.m.