With the spring season officially starting in 17 days, the DePauw Tigers baseball team started their 2014 season Saturday on a cold streak, dropping both their games to Anderson University.
The team lost both games by just three runs in total, losing 5-3 in the 2:30 p.m. matchup and 6-5 in their 12 p.m. matchup.
In the noon game, which went to eight innings, Anderson struck first, once on a solo home run by Anderson's Jacob Craft, followed by a two-run hit by Jeremy Shelmadine.
Anderson scored two runs again in the sixth inning, making the game 5-0. The Tigers came back scoring five runs in the seventh inning of the contest, forcing Anderson into extra innings.
Sophomore pinch hitter Lucas Italiano scored first for the Tigers, followed by first-year Jack Thompson's sacrifice fly. Thompson played his first game as a DePauw Tiger this past weekend.
"I stepped in there and focused on putting the ball in play," said Thompson. "I got a fastball that I could get to the outfield. It was just a baseball game."
With the game set at 5-2, two Tiger seniors stepped up to follow through. Infielder Zach Starr scored a single, followed by senior Rob Stein's two-out double that scored two, evening the game at five a piece.
The surge wasn't enough for a Tiger victory, though. An RBI triple in the top of the eighth inning gave Anderson a 6-5 lead, eventually handing DePauw its first loss of the season.
"It's obviously not good to be in that position," Stein said, "but it's good to see we fought back in the last inning of both games."
In the second game of the doubleheader, DePauw found itself in the same predicament as game one: they were fighting from behind for a victory. After five innings, the Ravens were up 5-1, with Stein bringing home the Tigers lone run in the third inning.
The Tigers again mounted a comeback in the second contest, thanks in part to the efforts of Starr. He brought in two runs at the top of the seventh inning to put the Tigers within two, making the score 5-3.
However, that was the closest they got to victory, as Anderson closed out the sweep. The Ravens had 11 more hits than DePauw's 25 including 11 extra base hits. Pitchers Wyatt Spector, sophomore, and Pete Stuart, senior, took losses for the Tigers.
"We did not hit the baseball well enough at all to win and we did not field the ball the best either," said senior Brendon Pashia.
"We fought back in the last innings in both games which was good to see the fight in our team so early in the season."
In 2013, the team finished the season with a 17-23 overall record, going 9-10 in their conference. The team floated around .500 for the entire season, until a disastrous stretch at Case Western Reserve University.
Following a mid-April four-game split at Wabash College, in which the last game the Tigers embarrassed the Little Giants 19-3 in seven innings, things were looking up for the program. However, the Tigers lost all momentum in their trip to Case Western, losing all four games by a total of 13 points.
The Tigers bounced back with a 10-5 win at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology four days later, but it was hard for them to get the rest of the season on track. They finished with only one win in the last five regular season games. After a 0-7 loss at Indiana State University in the final game of the season, the Tigers headed to the North Coast Athletic Conference Cross-Over Series. They lost to Allegheny College in two games out of the three game series.
The team is looking to move forward in the upcoming games. They face Manchester University this coming weekend.
"I expect us to be more of a team this season. We've been working harder and hopefully that translates into more wins as we have more upperclassmen playing," Stein added.