A week ago today the Billiken baseball team was poised for a run at the conference leaders.
Today, however, the Bills are licking their wounds and trying to stop the bleeding.
Up until last week the Bills had been nearly unstoppable at home. Then, conference rival Cincinnati came to town and took two of three from the Bills.
After losing two of three to the Bearcats the Bills dropped their fourth of five with back to back losses to the Missouri Tigers.
Last night, the Tigers topped the Bills in the makeup game of the second annual College Baseball Classic by a margin of 4-2.
The Bills offense was silent until the seventh, when they struck for their first run of the game. The Bills then added another run in the eight, but senior designated hitter Mike Orrico lined out to center field with the bases loaded.
It was a quality pitching performance by the Bills staff, which was something that they hadn’t had in a few games. The Billikens were only able to muster four hits in the wooden bat affair.
On the other hand, Missouri put up seven hits and stole three bases right behind those hits.
In the two game series the Tigers stole seven bases on Billiken catcher Andrew Slania and the pitching staff.
The loss drops the Bills to 19-23 on the year.
The Tuesday night game was a game of missed opportunities for the Bills. They stranded 12 runners on and left the bases loaded twice to end an inning.
Mizzou, however, did not miss their opportunities.
The Tigers scored early and often as they plated seven runs in the first two innings.
By the middle of the fourth, the Tigers had knocked out Bills starter junior Brad Wehrfritz.
Wehrfritz ended up surrendering all 11 Tigers’ runs, and all of them were earned.
At that point the Bills were in such a hole that they couldn’t manage to get out.
Prior to the Mizzou game the Bills hosted Cincinnati in a pivotal conference match-up. Entering the series both teams were 7-8 in conference and looking to make a jump in the standings.
Unfortunately for the Bills it was the Bearcats that took the first two games of the series.
In the first game of the series the Bills and Bearcats went to extra innings before the game was decided.
In the tenth the Cats scored five runs off Billiken relievers Torrey Lombardo and Kris Weber.
The bottom of the frame showed promise for the Bills as they loaded the bases, but the middle of the order couldn’t come up with the big hit and the Bills dropped the game 9-5.
In the second game of the series, the Bills suffered their worst loss in two years.
It was a shellacking as the Bearcats pounded out 18 hits and scored 18 runs, all of which were earned.
It didn’t matter which Billiken pitcher took the mound as the Bearcats kept pounding out hit after hit.
All in all, the Cats had six extra base hits and even stranded eight runners on base. Saturday’s loss dropped the Bills to 7-10 in conference, and they looked to be fading quickly.
On Sunday afternoon the Billikens showed the mental toughness that they are going to need come conference tournament time.
The Bills were able to put Saturday’s drubbing behind them, and fought gallantly to earn a 4-3 victory riding mostly on the shoulders of junior right-fielder Jim Bredenkoetter.
Bredenkoetter sparkled in the field as he took away an extra base hit in the seventh that stopped a Bearcat rally.
In the eighth, Bredenkoetter drove a triple to the wall that scored what proved to be the winning runs for the Bills.
On the mound, it was senior southpaw Dan Shouse that kept the bearcats in check.
Shouse was superb for the second straight week as he held the potent Cats offense to just three runs on nine hits.
Shouse was able to go the distance for the Bills as he earned his second straight complete game victory.
The win moved the Billikens to 8-10 in conference and put them in a tie for sixth place with the Louisville Cardinals.
This weekend the Billikens head to Memphis to take on the Tigers in a three game conference affair.The Tigers are one game ahead of the Billikens at 9-9 tied with Cincinnati.
The series with Memphis is huge, as the Billikens could jump to fourth in conference with a sweep of the Tigers.
Perhaps more important is the fact that the Billikens need to keep winning because to qualify for the conference tournament they have to finish in the top eight in conference.
The Bills next home game is Tuesday, May 1, as they play host to UT-Martin at 3 p.m.
SLU will then hit the road as they take on the Eastern Illinois Panthers and C-USA rival Houston before concluding the season at home with the Charlotte 49ers.
