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And down the stretch they come. With just nine games left in the season, the Bloomsburg University baseball team has shown their true colors over the past six games. They've shown that at times they can be extremely productive offensively, piling up runs in the double digits with ease. They've also shown they can hang with other teams' pitching staffs, and while they might not always outpitch the other team, they can do enough to hang around in any game. Those are the positives.
The negatives are what have outweighed the positives during this season, in which the Huskies have not been able to put a streak of back-to-back complete games together all year. Their inconsistency, both at the plate and on the mound, have led to this team being a team that can be defined by one word: mediocre. Throughout the Huskies entire lineup, there have been a few bats that have absolutely bailed them out and put the offensive production on their shoulders throughout this year. The biggest contributors for the Huskies, and their biggest saviors at the plate has been Tony Donofry, Joey Ianiero, Chris Tressler and Jerry Lloyd. Over the past week, Donofry played like a man possessed, posted a plethora of big games and came up with big hits during key moments of the game. A major reason why the Huskies split three of their last six games was because of Donofry.
On April 9, the Huskies took on the Mansfield Mountaineers. In game one, the Huskies and Mountaineers were tied up at 8-8 after 7 innings. They then went into extra innings to settle the matchup. In the top half of the eighth, Mansfield got a clutch two-run home run from Dan Lough, putting them up 10-8. From there, Joel Worthington struck out the side to give the Mountaineers game one. Chris Tressler led the way in game one for the Huskies going 2-3 with two RBI.
In game two the Huskies responded with authority, led by Donofry. The Huskies led 8-2 after three innings, and then in the fifth inning went on a rampage that included a Donofry RBI triple, as the Huskies added on six more runs to make it 14-2. Vinny Voorhees settled down after a rough first inning, and struck out 10 Mountaineers in the complete game win for the Huskies.
The next day at Mansfield, the Huskies got off to a hot start, thanks to a lot of help from the Mountaineers. The Huskies picked up four runs in the first inning, after Mansfield had a horrible rash of fielding errors, allowing the Huskies to pick up the runs after getting just two hits. Mansfield got back two of their runs later in the first, before Jerry Lloyd went yard in a big way for the Huskies, with a two-run shot to give Bloomsburg the 6-2 lead after two. The Huskies pitching then became very suspect, as the Huskies allowed five runs over the next four innings to trail by one, before Ianiero came through with a massive homer in the top half of the inning. The Huskies manufactured a few runs from there on out in the seventh, with Eric Ebert and Donofry bringing home two more runs to give the Huskies the 9-7 lead. After a solo homerun by Chris Coleman in the bottom of the seventh, the Mountaineers went down one, two, three as Mike Rossetti picked up the win for the Huskies in relief.
In game two of the evening, both teams got off to hot starts at the plate, as the Huskies got hits from Jarrod Kramer and Corey Eisenhart, scoring five runs before the Mountaineers clawed their way back into it with five runs of their own to tie it after three. Over the final four innings, the Huskies pitching staff was torn to pieces, giving up 10 runs and giving the Huskies offense little chance for a comeback, down 15-5. The Huskies added three runs in the final two innings but it was not enough as Bloomsburg fell 15-8.
On April 13, the Huskies took on Lock Haven in a double-header at Bloomsburg. In the first game, the Huskies got pounced on from the very start, as Lock Haven jumped out to the quick 4-0 lead, and would add another score in the second inning. Bloomsburg did not go quietly though, scoring three runs over the first two innings to trail 5-3 after two. Mitch Troy settled down on the mound after getting knocked around the first two innings to pitch four solid innings for Bloomsburg. The Huskies were not able to make it any closer, and Lock Haven sealed the deal in the seventh, after Troy left the game and Chris Carter entered and proceeded to give up two insurance runs to Lock Haven who went on to win 7-3.
In the nightcap of the double-header, the Huskies again got off to another bad start, trailing 4-1 in the middle of inning number three. In the bottom half of the third, the Huskies' bats sensing it was now or never, came to life. Clutch RBIs were provided off the sticks of Gino Wise, Kramer, and Donofry, as the Huskies tied it back up at 4-4. The Bald Eagles scored two big runs in the sixth inning to lead 6-4, and took that lead into the bottom of the seventh. That's when the Huskies big bats came through, carrying the load. With Ianiero on second, Lloyd hit a clutch two run home run deep into the night, carrying the Huskies to extra innings with the score knotted up at 6-6. After another inning and a half of no scoring, Ianiero singled with one out and then Donofry provided the knock-out punch, with a huge walk off double into the gap, giving the Huskies the 7-6 victory.
With the three wins in six games, the Huskies now stand at 13-25 overall and 8-12 in the PSAC. As the season comes to a close, the Huskies can look back and thank their big four, Donofry, Ianiero, Tressler and Lloyd, for being the saviors at the plate, as the Huskies have relied on them for almost all of their production and as the primary hitting threats throughout the season. For the last stretch of the season, the Huskies will rely upon these four, hopefully along with some stellar pitching performances in order to try and gain some positive momentum in building for next season.
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