Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category
Softball gets rained out
Last Updated on Friday, 30 April 2010 12:52 Written by Jessica Koch Thursday, 29 April 2010 01:59
What was thought to be a day of celebration on Saturday, Apr. 26 for the six Griffon softball seniors ended up being an unfinished second game due to weather and a collision between two teammates.
The Griffons (24-21) took on the Northwest Bearcats (21-18) on a very stormy Saturday afternoon, trying to payback for the 15-8 loss earlier in the season..
The first game was a story of simply getting the ball on the bat. The Griffons had a tough time getting hits, and when they did get hits they went right to the defense. The Griffons actually made contact 4 times compared to the Bearcats 2. Yet Northwest was able to capitalize and score their only run, which was the run to decide the game.
In the top of the fifth inning, two Griffons, Senior Becky Diehl and Junior Brittany Douglas collided, giving Diehl a concussion and Douglas a broken leg.
Carla Anderson pitches the ball during Western’s softball game last weekend. Photo | Sara Baum
The second game of the doubleheader match-up with the Bearcats went a little bit more the Griffon’s way as they were first on the board and got up 2-1.
Senior Allison Jones was also pitching a great game with no walks, four strike-outs, and two hits, on her way to her 69th complete game in her career.
All was going well for Missouri Western, until it had to rain on the seniors’ parade. The rest of the game was cancelled due to the rain causing the field to be un-playable and will be rescheduled.
After losing their first game of the double header, having two fellow team mates injured in a collision trying to make a play and having their second game rescheduled, senior Allison Jones didn’t let it ruin her senior day.
“The weather was pretty frustrating, but it being senior day it makes you realize how few games you have left,” Jones said.
The season isn’t over though. The Griffons are confident coming into the last stretch of games before conference play begins and hope to play their best softball during that time.
“I think we are very confident going into the last few games,” Jones said. “We have started to play one out at a time, one inning at a time, one game at a time. We are starting fresh and conference tourney is the perfect time to show everyone how we really play.”
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Baseball sweeps past Pitt State
Last Updated on Thursday, 29 April 2010 01:45 Written by Matt Gleaves Thursday, 29 April 2010 01:45
The Griffon baseball team used some timely hitting and stellar pitching performances to sweep a four game series from the Pittsburg State Gorillas last weekend.
Coming into the weekend, Western needed to play better than they had and take at least three of the four games from Pitt State and did just that.
The first game started with Western sending freshmen pitcher Oliver Kadey to the mound and he set the tone for the rest of the series for the Griffons. Kadey threw a complete game shutout against the Gorillas in a 2-0 victory.
Senior Danny Conners eyes a pitch during a Western baseball game. The Griffons defeated Pittsburg State this weekend 4-0 and kept their conference tournament hopes alive. Photo | Sara Baum
Western scored the first run of the game on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first inning and the game turned into a pitcher’s duel. Trevor Hannum scored on an RBI single by Ian Atkinson in the fifth inning. The two Griffon runs were all that Kadey needed as he shut down the Pitt State lineup most of the game. The Gorillas loaded the bases in the toup of the fourth but Kadey was able to work his way out of it and cruise the rest of the way to pick up his second victory of the season.
Game two provided a little more offense as the Griffons took the game 9-4 behind Isaac Rome’s four RBI’s including his 11th homerun of the year.
Western finished the series in a wild game Sunday night which they won 12-11 in 11 innings. The pitching staff, as well as the whole team, were running on fumes by the time the series came to an end.
“Andy Hebrard came into the last game Sunday giving us everything he had and we were able to ride out the emotional roller coaster and win it in 11 innings,” head coach Buzz Verduzco said.
The Griffons fought back to tie the game in the eighth inning behind Hebrard. Hebrard gave up a three run home run to center field in the top of the 11th to put the Griffons down 11-8 going into their final at bat.
Western used three hits to score four runs in their final at bat of the 11th inning to score the comeback win. Atkinson delivered the game winning hit on a RBI single to left center field to cap off the win.
Hebrard earned the win as he pitched 5.1 innings, giving up four earned runs on five hits but also struck out six batters in his fifth win of the season.
“This sweep was huge for us,” Hebrard said. “Pitching a long relief was something I wanted and so it wasn’t a big deal.”
Western knew they would have to sweep Pitt State in order to keep their post-season hopes alive.
“We were pretty emotionally drained after that series,” Hebrard said.
The Griffons will now take a few days rest and then face Emporia State on Friday and Saturday.in two double headers.
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NCAA plans to trim down DII seasons
Last Updated on Thursday, 29 April 2010 01:39 Written by Lauren Burbach Thursday, 29 April 2010 01:39
Starting this fall, all Missouri Western’s sports teams will spend a little less time on the court or the field due to the NCAA’s “Life in the Balance” initiative that passed this past January.
Western’s volleyball, soccer, and football teams, who usually arrive on campus two to two and a half weeks early for their preseasons, won’t arrive this year until a week later than usual. In addition, volleyball will play 26 as opposed to 28 games and soccer will play 18 as opposed to 20.
This winter, both the men’s and women’s basketball teams will have a “dead period” from December 20 to December 26 in which they cannot practice or play. The basketball teams will also play only 26 as opposed to 27 games.
Next spring, Western’s baseball team will see the biggest schedule adjustments. The baseball team will go from 56 to 50 contests. Both golf teams will go from 24 competition dates to 21. The softball team’s maximum number of games will stay at 56.
According to athletic director Dave Williams, Division II has been struggling to find its identity for quite some time.
“Division II members are still trying to figure out what our identity is,” Williams said. “Everyone knows what Division I is – Division I is what you see on TV. It’s the big time sports – it’s athletes that just happen to go to school. Everyone knows what Division III is – it’s playing for the love of the game, it’s non-scholarship, it’s the true student athletes who are there for academic purposes but just happen to play sports. But what’s division II?”
Williams believes that Division II falls somewhere in between.
“We’ve always talked about balance,” Williams said. “We’re the division that still plays at an incredibly high level of athletics but we are also students. We’re the balance in between.”
The NCAA has studied the workload of athletes in Division I, II and III sports for a long period of time and found that the difference between Division I and II athletes is fairly minimal. According to Williams, this is one of the main reasons that the legislation was passed. However, Williams believes there may have been a better way to go about shortening seasons than cutting contests.
“I’m still skeptical,” Williams said. “I think that there are ways in DII to have true balance without taking away the one thing that student athletes always what to do, and that’s compete.”
The thing that is truly taking up athletes’ time isn’t competing, according to Williams.
“What’s taking up all their time? I think the answer is the off season workouts,” Williams said. “No matter if you play 26 games or 28 games, you’re still going to practice 20 hours a week. Your season is what it is. If you’re not playing that day, you’re probably practicing. I don’t think we’ve done much with that except save some money.”
According to what is written in the “Life in Balance” legislation, budget reduction was not a main reason in passing these initiatives. However, not having to bring in athletes early and reducing a few games here and there will save Western money in a time of budget cuts across the board.
“From our standpoint, any time a student athlete is on campus we have to feed and house them,” Williams said. “Luckily our housing doesn’t cost us a lot, but feeding them is expensive.”
Assistant athletic director Patsy Smith mentioned that these reductions benefit everyone, not just the athletes.
“When they’re talking about ‘life in the balance,’ it’s not strictly a student initiative, it’s also for coaches and administrators and athletic trainers and everybody else, so we can give everybody a break,” Smith said. “In athletics, we work around the clock and these initiatives are giving us a little time off.”
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Baseball drops game to Rockhurst
Last Updated on Friday, 23 April 2010 02:09 Written by Matt Gleaves Friday, 23 April 2010 02:09
Fundamentals are one of the keys to being successful in baseball and last Wednesday the Griffons struggled with playing fundamentally sound. The Griffons had three errors and only six hits, which led to 8-2 loss to Rockhurst University last Wednesday at Phil Welch Stadium.
Billy Waldman catches a fly ball during Western’s game against Rockhurst last Wednesday. The Griffons lost the game 8-2 and struggled with errors during the game. Photo | Matt Fowler
The Griffons started the first inning with two of their three errors. Those to errors came back to haunt Western as two runs came in off errors and one long ball hit by Rockhurst second basemen Chad Hatcher scored two more runs. Griffon pitcher Blake Thomas would then get the final out, but the damage had been done. There would be no coming back for Missouri Western.
Western could only answer with a single in the bottom of the first and would only get three hits over the first five innings.
“Kind of all year we’ve had a struggle with our at bats and tonight was really no different,” head coach Buzz Verduzco said.
On the mound Wednesday night was senior Blake Thomas, the veteran pitcher who went six innings and gave up eight runs. That seemed to be the problem for Western, because only three of those runs were earned.
“The errors kind of got us,” Verduzco said. “They kind of deflated us.”
On the hill for Rockhurst was Alex Seier. Seier went seven innings giving up five hits, one earned run and one strikeout. Leading Rockhurst at the plate was first baseman Ryan Porter. Porter went 4-5 from the plate with two big homeruns that really took the wind out of Western’s sails. Porter was the only player from Rockhurst with more than one hit in the game and a lot of that has to due with the way that Thomas pitched. If you take away the errors for Western, then you’re looking at a one run ball game.
Offensively for the Griffons, they struggled mightily at getting the bat on the ball. There was no Griffon with more than one hit and it wasn’t until the seventh inning that the Griffons were able to get a run across the plate.
In the game the Griffons left eight runners on base – when you do that it becomes very hard for a team to win baseball games. Western managed to get one more run in the eighth off a Scott Groner single.
“Hopefully we can take a few days off, regroup and get ready for the conference run,” Verduzco said. “But we don’t know what that’s going to be yet.”
The Griffons will play the University of Nebraska-Omaha in a double header on Wednesday, April 21 and then will have a double header against Pittsburg State on Friday, April 24.
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