| Mitch Mortensen comes on fast to field the ball cleanly during an earlier game. Fielding errors would cost the Eagles both games in the SWAC tournament and led to an early exit home for the 2008 college season. |
Another season closes for the CEU baseball squad with a quick exit from the SWAC tournament. CSI rolled over CEU by the score of 11-1 and then Colorado did the same with a 10-1 beat down of the Eagles in their final game.
Coach Scott Madsen said that it would take the bats, fielding and pitching to click for the Eagles to make it far into the tournament. For whatever reason, that just didn’t happen.
Against CSI, the CEU offense put up a run to start off the game. They even held CSI scoreless for three innings. Things looked good for the CEU Eagles and pitcher Riley Gordon.
For Gordon, it would not last. He watched as 10 runs and 13 hits piled up to earn himself an early trip to the shower. Four errors from his defense in one inning did not help matters.
Offensively CEU only managed two hits in the game and left four runners stranded. It was not the magic Coach Madsen had in mind. “This is the first year since I started coaching that we haven’t won at least one game in post season.”
Heading to the consolation round, they faced Colorado Northwestern. They had beaten CNCC more than they had lost to them, so there was hope.
But CNCC jumped out early and often to put the Eagles in a 7-1 hole by the end of the third. Pitchers Kyle Graham and Mike Newbury combined to give up all 10 CNCC runs. But just as in the game before, it wasn’t the pitching, it was the defensive errors behind them that cost them and the team.
Scott Kappas came on in relief and pitched three innings of shutout ball, but the offense of CEU never woke up to get themselves back in the game.
Madsen explained,”It was like watching a nightmare. And there was nothing we could do to stop it. The box score only showed four errors in the second game, but there were so many more.” He went on to say, “Our pitching was actually pretty good, but we just could not field the ball. I don’t know what happened.”
But as one season closes, the coach’s thoughts are already working on the next season. “We have had a good recruiting season. On paper we look pretty good for next season,” remarked Madsen. “We also have a couple of players who sustained injuries in the fall and could not play, coming back.”
One of those players is slugger Tyler Tuft, who has applied for red-shirt status from the league. “With him we are scoring four or five runs a game, without him, maybe one.”
For the local fans, Carbon High’s Ron Herrera has committed to play for the Eagles next year as well as Emery’s Blake Mortensen.
For anyone interested in possibly playing for the Eagles next season, the team will be holding open tryouts on May 24 at 9 a.m. on the CEU baseball field.