This past weekend, the Grinnell baseball team faced conference foe Knox College in a trio of games at the North Diamond in Grinnell. The first game was a continuation of a game that had been previously postponed, while the other two were the scheduled doubleheader for the afternoon.
“In the first game, which was a continuation of a game from the previous Saturday that had gone into extra innings, we played well, but unfortunately Knox was able to get the big hit and capitalize before we could,” said Marshall Chavez ’10, who pitches and plays first base for the team. “However, we came back and stomped them in the next game 12-1.”
In that game, the first of the doubleheader, Ryan Harris ’10 combined with Chavez to pitch a one-hitter. Harris pitched four hitless innings with six strikes and one walk, while Chavez pitched three innings, allowing only one hit, and got the save.
The two pitchers were backed by a strong offensive performance by the Pioneer lineup, which scored 12 runs in only seven innings of play in a game that ended due to the mercy rule. Grinnell scored three at the bottom of the first with RBIs from Brett Maloney ’10 and Paden Roder ’10, then scored seven more in the bottom of the seventh with RBIs from Maloney, Roder, Greg Suryn ‘11, JP Prouty ‘10, Mark Wilcox ‘09, and Brian Sollo ‘10. Grinnell then made it 12-0 with runs in the fourth and fifth innings, and Knox finally scored a run in the top of the seventh inning.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the Pioneers came out strong with four runs through four innings, bolstered by a two-run homer from Roder in the second inning. However, Knox came away with the win, scoring two runs in the fifth, one in the seventh, and two in the eighth.
Grinnell also played a non-conference game against Simpson College this past Tuesday and won 17-0. It was a slugfest for the Pioneers, who had 22 hits, including six players with multiple hits. Two of those players were Ronnie Gray ’12, who went 5-for-6, and Mike Bogard ’12, who went a perfect 4-for-4.
The team is now 14-8 overall, though just 2-2 in conference play. Nonetheless, the players still look ahead to the future. “Looking ahead I would say we have a great shot at making the conference tournament and possibly competing for first place in the south division,” Chavez said. “This is the best team I have been on in my three years in Grinnell. We have a potent offense with lots of depth plus a large pitching staff loaded with talent and experience.”
Ben Mendoza ’09, the shortstop and one of the captains for this year’s squad, further emphasized the team’s abilities. “We know we have some work to do, but we have the right team to get into that young tournament, which is all that matters.”
