Stingers Fall Apart in Fifth

Poor Pitching Proves Costly for ConU

SportsDavid Murphy — Published September 22, 2011

A disastrous fifth inning led to the Stingers’ third defeat of the season, losing 6-4 to archrivals McGill in Canadian Intercollegiate Baseball Association action on Wednesday night.

Concordia looked impressive early on when third-baseman Mark Nadler homered to make it a 3-1 ball game—but weak pitching and an offensive rally from the Redmen took control.

After walking two and letting McGill’s Chris Ames tie up the game at 3-3 at the top of the fifth, Concordia pitcher Brandon Bercovits was yanked by manager Howard Schwartz.

But relief pitchers Nadler and Matthew Cuffaro couldn’t salvage anything from the final two innings as the Redmen earned their final two runs by walking two players when the bases were loaded.

“Our pitching, which has carried us to an 8-2 record just wasn’t there,” said Schwartz. “[Bercovits] was just missing high and just missing outside […]. He just didn’t have it the way he usually had it in his three previous appearances.”

Two errors in the game hindered the Stingers, but Schwartz made no excuses for his team’s performance.

“I don’t think the umps cost us the game; I don’t think the errors cost us the game. We didn’t play well enough to win. We just came up a little short.”

Regardless of the loss, Schwartz doesn’t think it will affect the Stingers’ confidence, and he feels they are still feared in the league. “We can learn from this. I’m not worried; we’ve been around every team in the league now, and I like our chances,” said Schwartz.

McGill manager Ernie D’Alessandro admitted beating a team like Concordia will do wonders for his side’s confidence when it comes to the post-season.

The Stingers are still sitting top of the standings in the CIBA Northern Division, and have four games remaining in the regular season; two of which will be played as a double-header Sept. 24 in Ottawa. The games are at 12:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. respectively.