The Pride continue to roll after a midweek series sweep against Ashland University JV and a four game sweep of Lakeland CC. They have improved to a 27-2 start, backed behind quality starting pitching and a lineup where almost every player has an on-base percentage of .400 or more.
Anything over .400 is excellent, and guys like Ben Myers, Alec Turner, Tyler Cowles, Chad Roberts and Nick Massey are all near or above .500. Even some of the players on the lower end of the lineup are well above .400, but are slightly being overshadowed by the players listed above.
The Pride did have an epic comeback this past Tuesday against Ashland when the Pride were down 8-3 with just a couple innings left. The atmosphere felt bleak and it seemed like the Pride was going to take their third loss of the season. Luckily, Ashland committed some untimely errors that allowed the Pride to get back in it.
“The biggest play of the inning was an infield fly. It was a bloop over the pitcher’s head. It can be called an infield; it could have not been called. It could have gone either way, but they called it and I heard it right away. The shortstop picked it up and threw it to first base because he thought it was live and threw it over the first baseman’s head,” said Dintaman.
An infield fly is when an umpire calls the player out if the ball gets popped up way up in the air within the infield. Dintaman credited his team for being so loud that almost no one even heard the ump call it. If the shortstop had heard him call it, I’d probably be writing about how the Pride suffered their third loss of the season.
Tyler Cowles has been a monster all season. He is leading the team in an on-base percentage, slugging percentage, second on the team for home runs, and leads in batting average as well. So with a guy who seems to be a threat to hit a dinger every time he’s up, why not bat him leadoff?
“We feel comfortable with him leading off and he feels comfortable leading off. He’s not your typical leadoff hitter either. He will swing at the first pitch at the first pitch every now and then and lead the game with a first pitch home run. The only reason I like him up there is because it gets him more at bats,” said Dintaman.
It also helps with you have guys that are more than capable of hitting home runs and getting on base to help move Cowles along.
The Pride look to see some better quality starts out of their midweek pitchers against Vincennes Tuesday along with a four game series against conference rival Edison, who is 7-9 on the year.
Matthew Summers
Sports Editor