By Tim Stried
April 1, 2002
Junior Wes Hall pitched a two-hit shutout for his second victory of the season and senior centerfielder Brad Buckingham was a combined 5-for-11 at the plate over the weekend as the Bluffton College baseball team took one of three games from The College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati.
Originally schedule for Thursday and Friday in Bluffton, the games were moved south to the Mount due to the weather, and for the second straight weekend the Beavers went 1-2 against one of the upper level teams in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference.
BC remains in the fifth spot in the league with a 2-4 HCAC record and a 4-13 mark overall. The Beavers are scheduled to host Earlham College Wednesday before taking on HCAC front-runner Anderson University in a three-game series this weekend. One game will be played at Anderson on Friday followed by a double-header at Sears Field on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.
In Bluffton's dramatic 1-0 victory over Mount St. Joseph, Hall allowed just seven runners to reach base as he improved to 2-0 on the season with an earned run average now at 2.96. The Lions loaded the bases in the seventh inning but were unable to score a run, which allowed senior Todd Pickthorn's RBI single in the sixth inning to stand as the game-winning hit. Buckingham reached first on an infield hit to begin the inning and was advanced to second by senior Dustin Kreis on a sacrifice bunt before being knocked in by Pickthorn's single to left field.
Mount St. Joseph won the first game 10-5 despite a homerun and a double from Buckingham and two hits each from Kreis and Alberson. Kreis and sophomore Josh Underwood both doubled and sophomore Bob Heitkamp struck out two batters in six innings of work before Brad Moore finished on the hill in relief.
The Lions came back following Bluffton's 1-0 win to take the third game of the series 19-3. Buckingham added two more hits and freshman Phill Rasey homered to lead the BC offense. Underwood, Nathan Mowry and Jason Moore shared the pitching duties.
Sophomore Jim Dwenger leads the team with a .389 batting average and a .500 on base percentage, while Buckingham is hitting .360 with a team-high nine RBIs and a .480 slugging percentage. Pickthorn's 21 hits lead the team and he's hitting .356, while sophomore Kyle Alberson has eight RBIs and is hitting .319.
Special to: The Bluffton News, The Witmarsum