The Elon University baseball team had a tough game against the University of Akron in the second game of a three days series Saturday, as the Phoenix suffered a 12-5 loss.
The series got off to a great start on Friday with a 9-1 win for the Phoenix, as the team’s star pitcher Shea Sprague threw six scoreless innings. But this time around, after a two hour rain delay, there were troubles for Elon’s pitching, as the Phoenix used four different pitchers and threw 180 total pitches after a rocky start by freshman Justin Mitrovich.
When comparing the pitching from each game after this loss, head coach Mike Kennedy said the difference was night and day.
“Yesterday's pitcher was a player of the year candidate with so much talent, so the guys we had today had to be ahead in the count more, and they got into some bad counts, like some 2-0’s and 3-1’s, and we threw more balls than we wanted to,” Kennedy said.
After giving up a three-run home run in the second to Akron’s Ethan Schimony, Mitrovich was replaced with redshirt junior Joe Savino, who after a scoreless third inning threw a pitch straight down the middle of the strike zone, allowing an RBI single in the top of the fourth.
After Akron gave Elon its first run of the game with a bases-loaded walk, sophomore Adam Berry stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the fourth with a base hit that sent two runners home, bringing the score up to 5-3.
“I was ready, looking to swing at a good pitch up in the zone,” Berry said. “I got into a good count so I was prepared to put a good swing on it.”
After a wild pitch that sent a runner home, the score was getting close with the opposition leading by only one run, 5-4.
After Elon’s rally, Akron's offense got going again, with two RBI singles in the top of the fifth inning and another one in the sixth, which led Savino being pulled out and junior Ben Sieracki being put in.
Sieracki started off well but was quickly shut down by another high scoring inning by the Zips, who scored five runs in the eighth, to put them up by eight runs, making the score 12-4.
After the first out in the final inning, redshirt junior Sean O’Connell came into the game for seven pitches, and in the bottom of the ninth, junior James Broderick scored a final run with an RBI single, but it was not enough for a Phoenix comeback.
“Tomorrow is a new day, we have got to play better and we’re going to try to move past today and get ready for tomorrow,” Kennedy said. “Thats the great thing about baseball, we don't have to wait a week after we get our butt’s kicked like football, we come right back tomorrow and try to respond.”
Elon will play Akron one more time in the series finale at 1 p.m. Feb. 26 at Latham Park.