Archers lose second game of doubleheader
By: DJ McGuire
Sports Editor
The St. Louis Community College Archers Baseball team played a doubleheader against the Metropolitan Community College Maple Woods Monarchs on Sunday April 4th. The Archers won the first game of the doubleheader 8-3. Head Coach Scott Goodrich thought highly of his team’s performance in game one.
“We had good pitching, timely hitting and defense and played good all around,” Goodrich said.
In the second game the outcome fell in favor of the Monarchs 10-2. While this may have seemed like a blowout loss from the final score, Goodrich believed this was not the case. “I tell our guys I don’t think we played necessarily terrible, it just didn’t go our way there in the middle innings,” Goodrich said.
The starting pitcher for the game was No. 14, freshman Connor Cline. The game began and Cline started out shaky as he gave up a walk in the first ending which led to a Monarchs double, putting them on the board first 1-0.
Kolton Schilly, No. 3 freshman outfielder who had two hits and scored a run, led off for the Archers and laid down a bunt, and outran the throw to make it safely.
“Shoot, I’ve been doing that for awhile, I’ve always been fast so I always try for that bunt, for a hit,” Schilly said.
After Schilly got on base he proceeded to steal a base and advanced to third on a error by the Monarchs third baseman, which also put a runner at first base. After a walk by the Monarchs pitcher Tynin Zeller, the bases were loaded. The next batter for the Archers was sophomore infielder, No. 26 Neil Fischer who ended up striking out. However the next batter sophomore outfielder No 24. Cole Dupont hit a sacrifice fly to bring in one run, tying the game at one.
In the second inning there was a controversial play in which Sophomore catcher No. 23, Mitch Morris got hit by a pitch on his elbow. Initially the umpires called it a foul ball but after some talk between Morris and the ump he was given the base. After more deliberation the umpires finally decided that since he swung, it was not a hit by pitch but instead just a foul ball.
“I thought he didn’t go, I think he [the umpire] may have saw (sic) a swing, from over here it looked — it hit him plain as day,” Schilly said.
Goodrich also believed it clearly hit his player but was unhappy with the confusion of the call.
“They said he had swung at the pitch, that was never part of the conversation to begin with,” Goodrich said.
However the call didn’t matter as Morris ended up getting a hit anyway. The game continued and the pitching mistakes started to pile up for Cline, who gave up two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings putting the Monarchs up 5-1. Cline eventually finished with a stat line five innings pitched, giving up five hits, five runs, six walks and four strikeouts.
“I was hitting spots randomly, like sometimes it would just get away from me,” Cline said. “I just wasn’t getting the call sometimes that I wanted and it backfired.”
Goodrich also added that it wasn’t Cline’s best performance of the season.
“Connor Cline has been great for us all year and you can’t expect a guy to be perfect, not only for the game or an entire season,” Goodrich said. “Walks are not something he generally does and hopefully that’s just a blip in the radar.”
The game did not getting any better for the Archers as the Monarchs scored five runs in the sixth inning.
“The game just really got away from us in the middle innings,” Goodrich said.
The end result of the game was a 10-2 loss for the Archers. With the season already in full swing the Archers already know what their key strengths and weaknesses are.
“We need to work on finishing the weekend,” Schilly said. “We win the first couple games usually. If we can come back the second day and win games and sweep the series.”
Goodrich also admits the pitching has kept them in games, but the offense needs to be more consistent.
“Our starting pitching has really carried us,” Goodrich said. “We had some real down times offensively and we were winning some low scoring games. However we would like to see a little more consistency [on offense] so we are not relying on our starting pitching so much every day.”
The Archers also have very high goals for the end of the season. Both Goodrich and Cline said they would love to win the regional tournament.
“That’s our number one objective, to win that regional tournament,” Goodrich said.
Goodrich understands that in order to do so his team still needs to get better.
“We just want to continue to improve and play better so that when we get to the playoff time we are playing our best,” Goodrich said.
