Click the thumbnails to see photos and videos taken by Brad Landis. Also listen to post-game interviews with Austin Burnside, Brandon LaRue, and Coach Mike Pankow.
ESCANABA---The Bay College Norse baseball team broke a ten-game losing streak on Thursday by beating the Delta College Pioneers out of the Saginaw area, 5-4, in the Norse home opener at the Wells Sports Complex. But the Norse could not put two good games together and lost the nightcap, 13-2, in seven innings.
The two games were as different as night and day. In the opener, the Norse took an early lead and rode the pitching of Austin Burnside to victory. But in the nightcap, the Norse fell behind early as Blake Julian struggled on the mound and no one could get a timely hit. The result was a doubleheader split as the five-game series got under way.
“It's been kind of one of the stories of our season,” Norse Coach Mike Pankow said after the loss. “We get behind and some guys try to do a little too much, and kind of miss those opportunities to get back in the game. And then it gets ugly sometimes.”
While the second game was ugly, the first game was pretty for the Norse, as sophomore pitcher Austin Burnside was in complete control most of the way. He allowed two home runs, to Alex Czyzewski and Hunter Fehn, but because he didn't walk anybody, they were both solo home runs. That limited the damage on a sunny, blustery afternoon.
Burnside struck out 12 batters, and besides those two home runs, allowed only one other base hit in the first six innings of the game.
Meanwhile, his buddies gave him run support as Hector Aragayuan drove in two runs with a base hit in the first inning, Ritsuki Nonomura hit a solo home run, and Johnnie Robinette came through with a two-run double up the gap from the #9 hole.
Bay carried that 5-2 lead into the final inning when things got dicey. Chris Koscielniak and Steve Koscielniak both got base hits to lead off the inning. Burnside made a big pitch to Rigo Cervera to get him to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play.
That brought Burnside to within one out of a complete game victory, and he got Adam Barbarich to strike out. But he threw his only wild pitch of the game on that third strike, and Barbarich reached base, and a run scored, bringing Delta to within 5-3.
Then #9 hitter Hunter Fehn battled Burnside with four foul balls before lifting one to center field. Jake Sager tried to make a diving catch but he missed, the ball got by him, and Fehn got a triple as another run scored, making it 5-4.
That was all for Burnside, and fellow Crivitz High School graduate Brandon LaRue was brought in to pitch. He got Brady Gauthier to ground out to end the game.
Pankow was pleased with the with, and with Burnside's performance.
“It feels good to get that (losing streak) off our backs, and get some positive energy here,” Pankow said, and then added about Burnside, “that's the Burni that we saw early on. He's a strike-thrower. He comes out and throws hard, mixes that curveball in there. He likes to work quick, and he keeps our team in there when he does. He got into a rhythm and looked really good.”
“I got some momentum early and threw strikes right out the gate,” Burnside said. “That helped a lot, and I was just cruising from there. I tried keeping it as low in the zone as I could. And we actually could finally hit the ball today. We've been struggling the last two weekends in the conference, so that was nice.”
LaRue was happy to save the game for his buddy.
“I basically just looked to attack that strike zone,” he said. “I knew the run (on third base) didn't necessarily matter. We had to get the guy at the plate out. I got him (Gauthier) down 0-2, and tried to get him to chase high, and then, my stuff is just throwing junk, so I threw him a good slider on the outside corner and I got him to roll over.”
The second game wasn't as much fun as Julian gave up a two-run homer to Alex Piotrowski in the first inning and then yielded three more runs in the second inning. Delta College added four more runs in the fourth inning, three of them on a home run by Chris Koscielniak. The Norse used five pitchers in the loss.
Delta College improved to 5-16 overall, 1-6 in the MCCAA. Bay College improved to 4-19 overall, 1-11 in MCCAA play.
The teams will play another doubleheader on Friday, starting at 1:00.
“We've got to come mentally prepared a little bit better,” Pankow said. “We let Delta take us out of our game by having our ears in their dugout and listening to what they were saying. We have to play our game. Today, we got out of our game and let them get to us, and let them change how we approached things.”
The teams will also play a single game Saturday morning at 11:00.
