Article

Baseball Opens Home Season with Sweep
Baseball sweeps doubleheader from Upper Iowa in 2006 home openers.

by Garret Felder
April 06, 2006

To most people, a week is seven days, 168 hours, or five crummy days at a dead-end job. But to the Mavericks baseball team, a week is 25 runs and four wins.

Twenty-five runs were the difference between the Mavericks’ doubleheader at Upper Iowa last week and Wednesday’s doubleheader at the MSU Baseball Complex with the same team. While the Mavericks’ pitching kept Upper Iowa to four runs during their 9-1 and 5-3 victories, the men’s baseball team focuses on its long road of improvement after winning four games-in-a-row.

“I think everybody just got refocused,” said assistant coach Matt Magers. “Guys that have played for three years I don’t think were as disciplined as they were as freshmen and they might have taken things for granted. So we just had to go back to the basics and we did a lot more drills.”

Something as simple as the basics definitely showed in the Mavericks while they shut down Upper Iowa and made it look simple in the process.

Not only was the pitching back up to par, but the offense also sprayed 23 hits all over the field and through Upper Iowa’s porous defense.

“When you get your confidence level up, you get in that mode where you just see the ball hit and hit the ball,” said senior Dane Allen. “We got a lot of great hitters on our team and we just go out there and try to get the job done.”

Allen went two-for-three with two runs scored and a home run that lead to a five-run rally in the bottom of the sixth inning during the Mavericks’ first game of the doubleheader. Allen was supported by junior Mark Dolenc’s three-for-three, three-RBI day and junior Eric Austvold’s two RBIs toward the Mavericks’ 9-1 route.

“We have been working a lot on our mental toughness and just getting our minds right,” Allen said. “Upper Iowa embarrassed us last week and we took that personal. We want to build on the tradition we have and uphold it every year and I think today Upper Iowa learned that we are the Mavs and they slipped one by us.”

The top of the Mavericks’ order lead the squad offensively during the second game as junior Scott Kemp scored two runs in the No. 2 spot. Kemp would soon be followed as Dolenc and tri-captains Adam Sudbeck and Ryan Greene each crossed the plate during the fifth inning for the Mavericks. Dolenc was the top hitter of the day as he went six-for-seven with two runs scored and three RBIs.

Pitching was just as dominant for the Mavericks in the first game as junior Dane Secott went five innings, allowing one run on four hits and struck out six batters for his third win of the season.

“I think we realized we weren’t where we wanted to be after Upper Iowa and we seemed to be content with sub-par play,” Secott said. “We weren’t living up to our expectations so we had a couple of hard nose days of practice and kind of refocused and got ourselves back together.”

Junior Jon Bjelland was just as effective on the Upper Iowa offense as he also went five innings during the second game, allowing two runs and racking up five strikeouts for his fourth win. Sophomore Nick Fellman came in for the Mavericks in the top of the seventh to pick up his eighth save of the season. Fellman is just two away from the school record of 10 saves in a season.

Yet despite the Mavericks’ avenging their mediocre play with Upper Iowa and two more wins against Winona State (7-4 and 3-2) Tuesday, the squad still has a long road of learning before the postseason. And with the conference season in view, the Mavericks’ leaders have to get the ballclub to its destination.

“It’s that time of the year where (the) week before conference you need to start going with the guys who are going to be playing during the conference season,” Magers said. “And you are starting to see guys step up that are proving that they are ready to play at this level.”

For Mager’s pitching staff, stepping up starts with the little things — like balks. As the umpires re-enforce pitchers coming to a set position before throwing to the plate, the pitching staff understands that a lack of precision can lead to an unfavorable outcome in a one-run ball game.

“Before it was a change of direction and now it’s that you almost have a one second pause,” Magers said. “In the past we’ve seen umpires come up to us and say ‘hey you got to come set’, but now it’s to the point that they call it right away.”

But beyond the prevention of balks and players stepping up to the level, the squad also needs all the aspects of its game to come together as a whole consistently.

“Some days our pitching is up and some days our pitching is down. Some days our hitting is up and some days our hitting is down,” Allen said. “Lately we have been putting it all together, but we really just need to be overcoming adversity.”

The Mavericks hope to bring it all together and add to their four-game winning streak when they head to Duluth, Minn., to face Minnesota-Duluth Saturday and Sunday.