Bridgewater, Va.- On Feb. 24, the Eagles baseball team had a game against Gettysburg at home where winning this game gave the eagles a winning record.
The game started off with great pitching from the Eagles’ starting pitcher James Swart. The senior was effective at delivering strikes to start the game and commanding the different types of pitches, which kept Gettysburg from getting anything going in the first inning. This led to a quick inning where Swart threw less than 20 pitches.
“James throws a lot of strikes, off speed and overall just very well rounded pitches in hitting spots where he never [fazes] to deliver for us no matter the situation he is put in,” said freshman Tyler Dixon.
The bottom of the first had a lot of promise starting out with a few walks from Gettysburg’s starting pitchers, putting batters on base early which led to early opportunities to score runs. Senior Brandon Hartman hit a line drive to bring home two runs followed by another walk by Gettysburg, Leading to the eagles 2 run advantage headed to the bottom of the 1st.
Followed by another quick inning by Swart on the mound, the Eagles started to string a couple of hits in the bottom of the second. Starting with a line drive single from freshman Christian Harris and then junior Lucas Bauer with a double, positioning runners in scoring position. This was the beginning of where the game really broke open in the Eagles’ favor with the top of the Eagles’ line up being Harris and fifth year senior Jeffrey Snider, who both had singles that led to scores. The Eagles’ batting lineup was swinging away at anything close and increased their lead to 12 to 0.
The third inning was when Swart found himself in trouble but managed to control the damage by giving up a pair of hits and errors committed by the infielders. Swart finished the inning strong with the last out being a strikeout swinging with Gettysburg.
To start the fourth, due to the Gettysburg pitching struggles, the coaching staff decided to go to their bullpen earlier in the game. This played in the Eagles’ favor with Snider at bat hitting a home run which was the only score of the inning but extended the Eagles’ lead by one.
The next two innings were very good for Swart, being he only allowed two more runs on two hits Junior Joe Christopher came into the game in relief to face three batters to close the sixth inning, followed by freshman Hunter Covill for the seventh and junior Tyler Jones to close the ninth, leading to an Eagles 16-6 win over Gettysburg.
“We came out swinging today, putting up 2 donuts in the first inning then 10 runs in the following inning with the game plan to swing early at anything that was in the strike zone,” said freshman Nico Angrisani.
