The Falcons baseball team was swept by the Niagara Purple Eagles in a doubleheader on Sunday, losing in the first game 3-1 before in falling in the second game 3-2. The series was originally scheduled as a three game weekend series, however inclement weather forced the series to play only two games.
“(Our offense) was nonexistent,” Falcons Head Coach Danny Schmitz said. “It didn’t show up today. We talked with the team earlier in the week about how the last couple of weeks we’ve had two phases, but usually we have one phase that doesn’t click and instead of being somewhat average it’s well below average and that was today.”
The first game of the doubleheader started off strong for the Falcons, as sophomore outfielder Blake Jenkins drew a bases loaded walk in the first inning to give the Falcons an early 1-0 lead. However, the team was unable to capitalize further and neither team scored until the third inning, when Niagara tied the game on an RBI sacrifice fly. Niagara took the lead in the fourth on an RBI groundout, then put up an insurance run in the fifth with an RBI single. The Falcons were unable to make a comeback, as Niagara took the 3-1 victory.
“I thought the guys started off with a lot of energy,” Schmitz said. “As soon as Niagara took the lead I thought the energy kind of dropped, I told them that if you want people to stay in the stands, you’ve got to flat out get after it first pitch to last pitch.”
In the second game, Niagara jumped out to an early lead on an RBI double in the first inning, however, like the first game, the Falcons were able to manufacture a run in the bottom of the first, this time courtesy of sophomore catcher Joe McGuinness to make it a 1-1 game. However, Niagara responded in the third with an RBI single. Neither team put up any more runs until Niagara doubled the advantage with an RBI sacrifice fly in the seventh. The Falcons looked to have a rally going in the bottom of the seventh as senior infielder Nick Glanzman cut the lead in half on a bases loaded hit by pitch, however the team was unable to score any more runs after that as Niagara took the 3-2 win.
“We’ve got to make contact and have quality at-bats,” Schmitz said. “We need to get down through the baseball, line drives, hard ground balls, that’s when you give yourself an opportunity. If you hit the ball in the air or strike out, you don’t give yourself any opportunity at all, so we really need to get tougher mentally and have a better approach.”
“I thought Tyler really battled today,” Schmitz said. “I’m not sure that he had his best stuff today, but I thought he really battled, he grinded and kept attacking. I thought Zac was really, really good today. He really threw extremely well and both guys deserved better than what they got in regards to getting a loss, they pitched well enough to win.”
The team will play on the road next Tuesday afternoon against the Dayton Flyers.
