Hobbs, N.M. – Saturday was supposed to be the home opener for the McPherson College baseball team. Instead, cold temperatures and howling winds forced the Bulldogs to cancel their weekend series with Viterbo University, and jump in a bus and head south to New Mexico for a four game series with the University of the Southwest.
The Bulldogs and Mustangs played a double header on Saturday afternoon, with the Mustangs winning in the series opener 5-1, but the Bulldogs coming back to even the series with a 3-1 win in game two.
Garret Ham (Jr. Albuquerque, N.M.) picked up the loss in game 1, giving up four runs on eight hits, in five innings of work. He had a little bit of trouble locating his pitches. He ended up with four walks and just two strikeouts. Sean Watson (Fr. Abilene, Texas), worked the final inning, allowing one run on two hits.
The pitchers didn't get much help from the Bulldog bats. The McPherson hitters finished with just three hits, all of the singles, by
Kristopher Perez (Jr. Miramar, Fla.),
Kyle Lux (Jr. Lewes, Del.) , and Pearce McCoy (Jr. Kamloops, B.C.).
In the second game, the Bulldogs bounced back with
Dylan Marble (Jr. Danville, Ill.) on the mound. Marble went five innings, giving up just one run to the Mustangs on five hits. He finished with five strikeouts, and five walks, and moved to 2-0 on the year with the win.
Jarrod Manick (Jr. Aldergrove, B.C.) pitched the final two innings, and picked up the save. He gave up zero runs on zero hits, walking two and striking out three on his way to his first save of the season.
Defensively, the Bulldogs were better, committing just one error in the game, as opposed to four in the opening game, and the bats did just enough to secure the victory 3-1.
Mark Strebin (Sr, Westville, Ill.) did most of the damage for the Bulldogs at the plate. He went two for three in the game with a pair of doubles and two RBI.
"We pitched well all day" said Bulldog head coach
Bryan Moses. "And we played very clean in the game as well. This is encouraging considering we have had troubles getting outside for practice the past two weeks."
With the split, the Bulldogs are now 3-3 on the season. They will get a chance to improve on that record tomorrow when they wrap up their series with the Mustangs in another double header starting at 12:00 pm.
