As of this past weekend, DePauw baseball has seen six consecutive quality starts from its pitching staff.
Yet the Tigers head into this week with a meager two wins on the season, one of which came on Sunday in the finale of a three-game series against Manchester University (3-3) after DePauw dropped both games of a Saturday doubleheader.
“This weekend’s games… were not a display of how our team is,” said junior pitcher and outfielder Mike Hammel. “The main issues over the weekend were kicking the ball around and not staying with our approaches at the plate.”
Defense plagued the Tigers in the double-header, as the team committed four errors in game one and three errors in game two.
Senior pitcher Wyatt Spector (0-2) took the loss in game one despite allowing only two earned runs over six innings of work.
“You just have to control what you can control… and everything else will kind of play out,” Spector said. “There’re going to be times when our starters don’t put quality starts together and we have to rely on hitting, and vice versa… You just have to pitch inning by inning.”
Heading into the ninth and trailing by three, DePauw managed to put two runs on the board and get the go-ahead run on base before falling to the Spartans 4-3.
Game two would be prove to be much of the same story for the Tiger squad, as Manchester managed to squeeze past DePauw again with a 4-2 win.
Junior pitcher Riley Futterknecht kept the Tigers in the game, striking out nine through six innings. DePauw’s bullpen took a 2-2 tie into the eighth before surrendering the go-ahead run.
DePauw’s bats were silent. The team mustered all of four hits.
“Sometimes it’s tough getting used to your timing and swing early on,” said junior shortstop Reid Pittard. “We have prepared well for pitching, but this year and in years past it has taken a while for the bats to get hot.”
But after scoring only five runs through the first two games of the series, the Tiger offense broke out on Sunday afternoon in an 11-3 blowout of Manchester to avoid the sweep.
The team’s offense and pitching was led by Hammel, who picked up his first win of the season.
After surrendering a second-inning homer by Manchester short stop Sean Knepper, the righty held the Spartans scoreless through the seventh inning.
Hammel also helped himself at the plate, homering in the bottom of the second to bring the score even at 1-1.
The Tigers' lineup collected 11 hits, leaving only five men on base. Senior right fielder Lucas Italiano doubled, tripled and drove in three runs while junior third baseman Tate Stewart knocked in two.
DePauw returns to Greencastle this weekend for the season's home opener. The Tigers will face Hanover (2-5) in a double-header on Saturday, followed by a Sunday get-away game against Capital University (6-2).
“Our mentality doesn’t change,” said Hammel on preparing for the home opener. “Whenever you add pressure to the game, the game speeds up on you… We are entering the weekend with a loose approach to have fun in our home openers.”
The first pitch of Saturday’s double-header is scheduled for noon.