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Saints win easy in ‘slug fest’ over Titans
The Advocate
The Saints baseball team is riding a 10-game winning streak and improved to 12-1 in conference play after beating the Titans of Lane Community College in a doubleheader on Tuesday at Oslund Field.
The bats got going right out of the gate and the Saints picked up 22 runs on 27 hits against the Tritons in the two games. Head coach Bryan Donohue feels that his team has been playing amazing and are headed in the right direction for NWAACCs.
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“Offensively, we have been picking teams apart,” he said. “When one guy is struggling at the plate someone else gets on fire. Day in and day out our bats are getting better. We have the confidence to put up runs.”
Donohue continued by giving praise to his pitching staff, along with his team’s batting. “It’s been really good,” he said of his team’s starting rotation. “You have to have five quality starters. Technically speaking, we only need four. That’s been the struggle in years past, keeping our starters sharp. I’ve been really impressed so far.”
Sophomore Nick Opitz improved to 5-0 on the mound in the 13-3 victory in game one. Opitz became the second pitcher in the starting rotation with five victories along with fellow freshman Nick Struck.
The Saints piled on 13 hits, including four home runs off the bats of Dylan Jones, Grant Glover, Taylor Ard and a grand slam by Cory Davis.
The bats didn’t cool down in the second game against the Titans when the Saints won easily 9-1 on 14 hits. Sophomore pitcher Jay Newton picked up his first victory of the season and struck out three batters in the winning effort.
Donohue felt as if the team was playing in a statement series since the team’s only loss came to the Titans back on March 28 in Eugene, when the team fell 9-8 against former Saints pitcher Chris Vitus.
“They can’t hang with us,” said Donohue. “We let one slip away. We owed them a little bit of pay back.”
Struck cruised past the Roadrunners of Linn-Benton Community College 7-0 in game one of a doubleheader on Saturday. Struck picked up where he left off in his last start – a tear. Struck has given up four hits in his last two shutout starts.
Struck pulled out all of his tools, dominating the Roadrunners from the start with the help of the Saint’s offense. Struck improved his earned run average (ERA) to 1.61 with 28 strikeouts in 28 innings.
Donohue expected big things right from the start out of his starter Struck (5-0), who was the Oregon high school 6A player of the year last season at Tigard High School. “He’s been really, really good and sometimes he’s been average. The best thing about him, he finds a way to win.”
Jones (4-1) led the way on the mound in the second game 7-2 and the Saints picked up nine more hits including a 4 for 4 performance by Ard at the plate. Ard leads the team and NWAACCs with a .554 batting average. “He’s worked so hard to become a better hitter,” said Donohue. “Pitchers are already making adjustments.”
Donohue explained that Ard has become a much more disciplined batter since the fall, where he struggled with the adjustment from high school to college baseball.
“He came in and everyone knew he hit a million home runs in high school,” said Donohue. “He’s not just a one-dimensional hitter. He’s going to take what pitchers give him.”
This has been the best start since the 2007 season, when the Saints went 27-3 in Southern Region action. Donohue feels that his team has the right pieces of the puzzle to perform at the same level as the 2007 team.
“At this point we’re on pace,” he said on his team’s chances. “I want to beat that record and I feel that we have the team to do it.”
The Saints travel to Salem on Saturday to play the Chemeketa Storm in a double-header at 1 p.m. On March 31, the Saints beat the Storm in a double-header 10-5 and 3-0. Jones will start in game one on the mound and Struck in game two.