<Back

Baseball struggles with slump

Abby Rapoport

Every sports team struggles to overcome tough losses, but some defeats are easier to accept than others. Unfortunately for the baseball team, last Monday’s match against Simpson was not one of these games. The Pioneers fell to the Storm 27-6 during their first home game of the season on Monday, April 3. The defeat was a hard blow for a team that had concentrated on keeping all of its games close.

The 21 point loss was a wakeup call for some of the Pioneers.

“We realized we had to do something,” said pitcher Michael Rosenbaum ’08.

The baseball team won two of the five games after the loss to Simpson, but all of the losses were within a two-point range. The improvement came after the team began to emphasize offense.

Both Rosenbaum and C.J. Chamberlain ’08 believe that timely hitting combined with stringing hits together will turn the team’s close losses into wins.

The Pioneers came out of spring break with a 5-4 record, one of the best records for the team in several years. However, the baseball team has had trouble winning since returning to Grinnell.

“Our defense keeps things close,” said Chamberlain, “We need to finish them off through the … last inning.”
After Monday’s loss, the team played two back-to-back doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday. The Pioneers won their first game against Knox on Saturday but then dropped the next contest against the Prairie Fire. The baseball team also lost its two matches against Coe the next day as well.

The Pioneers pulled out of their slump last Wednesday with a 4-3 win on the road against William Penn University
The team has tried to incorporate numerous freshmen into its roster in order to build confidence and help bring the team together.
“We have a pretty deep team,” said Chamberlain. “At every position there are a few people who could play it well.”
But even so, the team cannot seem to pull out wins in tight games.

Rosenbaum believes the Simpson game was an anomaly. “Their hitting was contagious all day,” he said, noting that as the hitting continued, it became harder and harder to maintain defense.

But as the season progresses, the ability to win close games is beginning to become a major factor as the Midwest Conference looms ahead.

Losses like the Simpson game increase the pressure which hurts the team’s ability to play well.

“To win we [shouldn’t] be thinking as much,” said Rosenbaum, “enjoying [the game] instead of feeling pressure, loosening up and just having fun.”

“We just need to bring the team together and that’ll help us win all these close games we’re losing,” said James Bird ’07.
No matter what the strategy is, the players hope that their season will improve.

“We just haven’t had things go our way,” said Chamberlain. “It’ll just build once we get the winning streak on.”

<Back