Concordia Baseball: Stingers Split the Double-Dip

Concordia and Carleton Baseball Teams Split Doubleheader

SportsErik Trudel — Published September 22, 2014

Carleton won the first encounter 6-4, while Concordia got revenge with a 10-0 victory in Game 2.

After losing 8-0 to the Ravens the day on Saturday, the Stingers were hoping to bounce back by scoring a run in the first inning.

Following three solid innings by starting pitcher Jonathan Raftus, he struggled in the fourth and the Ravens took a 6-1 lead.

The Stingers would score two in the latter half of the fourth. First, a swinging strike got away from the Ravens’ catcher and brought home a run. After a pitching change, a balk made it 6-3.

Raftus returned in the fifth and took out the side. With his team reducing the deficit to two points, he got out of trouble in the seventh.

After a Raven stole a base and another was hit by a pitch, Raftus made an opposing player ground into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. However, the offence did not capitalize and the game ended 6-4.

In-between the two games, several players spoke to inspire the Stingers to produce a better result.

“We just told the guys to stop being so timid, to have fun with the game and go out there and play without worrying about making mistakes,” said center-fielder Andre Lagarde.

In the second game of the doubleheader, the Stingers gave the opposing pitcher an early exit as the club scored eight runs in the first inning. 12 Stingers batted in that half.

The first five batters all reached base on the lack of accuracy by the opposing pitcher and his teammates, thus producing two runs.

Daniel Paklarian brought in two more on another misplay. Now 5-0 with no outs and the bases reloaded, Daniel Thaw singled in Paklarian. Raftus and Lagarde batted once more and each brought in a run with sacrifice flies.

In the fifth, Lagarde’s hit produced the two runs to secure the decision by mercy rule, an automatic win when there is a double-digit deficit in 4.5 completed innings.

“Our talent alone will not win us games this season,” said Lagarde. “We have to be intense from pitch number one and take advantage of the chances that the other team gives us or that we create for ourselves.”

Pitcher Sam Belisle-Springer was effective throughout the majority of the contest and when he was in trouble, he was able to count on his teammates.

Concordia (6-4) will play against McGill (9-2) on Tuesday at 7:30pm at Gary Carter Field in Cote-Saint-Luc. For Lagarde, he is set on handing McGill all they can handle.

“We have to put pressure on their defence early and we have to make the simple plays. We can’t afford to make an easy play into an adventure, because they put up big offensive numbers,” said Lagarde.

“However, I still think that we have the team to beat and we’ll come to play on Tuesday.”