The wound is seeping again.
For the sixth time in seven games the Saint Louis University baseball team came up on the short end of the score.
In his first start ever, freshman Dave Guntorius gave up six runs in five-plus innings of work. Only three of those runs were earned, but the error that allowed the other three runs to score was made by Guntorius himself.
The Billiken offense was able to put six runs and 14 hits up on the board, but it wasn’t enough against the Eastern Illinois Panthers. The Bills dropped the game 9-6 and fell to 20-27 on the year. For the struggling Bills it was their eighth loss in the last 10 games. The Billikens had seemed to stop the bleeding yesterday with a 5-4 win over UT Martin, but that didn’t last long.
It was junior hurler Brad Wehrfritz going the distance as the Bills were able to plate the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Wehrfritz had a career-high 11 strikeouts in his complete game performance.
The game got off to a bang with both teams scoring the majority of their runs in the second and third innings.
UT Martin was able to push across a pair of runs in both the second and the third, while the Bills scored three in the second and one in the third.
Early in the game the Skyhawks played little ball with numerous bunts and fake bunt attempts. Their strategy worked to perfection as the Bills defense seemed to be on their heels early in the game.
The Skyhawks were aggressive and the numerous runners on the base paths seemed to rattle Wehrfritz.
When Wehrfritz took his focus from the hitters he got the ball up in the zone and the Skyhawk hitters jumped on those pitches.
Wehrfritz seemed to be laboring early in the game and the Billikens had pitchers warming as early as the third.
Somehow, Wehrfritz managed to find his composure and escape the early innings only allowing the four runs.
After that, the Skyhawks totally abandoned what had worked for them earlier. Their offense went dormant for the rest of the game.
The Bills on the other hand stayed with their game plan throughout the game and would have won the game in nine innings had they not been careless on the base paths early.
In the third, senior first baseman Mike Orrico reached base and was thrown out trying to steal second base.
Orrico was trying to get a good jump off the pitcher and left before the pitcher made his initial movement towards the plate. This base-running mistake cost the Bills as the next batter, senior catcher Ben Caffey, hit a homerun over the left field fence.
Caffey’s shot tied the game at four, but would have given the Bills the lead had Orrico not been picked off.
This aggressive style of play has led Bills to their first 20 win year since 1997. On the year, the Billikens have swiped 50 bases; junior outfielder Kurt Evans leads the way with 11. The Bills have 39 sacrifice bunts; senior shortstop Paul Miles leads the ball club with eight. In the games the Billikens have won, they have been aggressive on the base paths and have been able to move runners up when needed.
At this point the Billikens sit at 20-26 overall and 8-13 in conference. The 8-13 conference record has the Bills in seventh place, a game ahead of Southern Miss and two games behind Louisville.
This weekend, the Billikens travel to Houston to take on the conference-leading Cougars who are 16-5 in C-USA. Houston is probably one of the toughest teams to play in C-USA because of their immensely hard non-conference schedule.
The Cougars are 25-23 overall, but have played perennial NCAA tournament teams like LSU, USC, and Cal State-Fullerton. The Cougars should not be taken as a near .500 team. They have proven over the past few seasons that the tough non-conference schedule will pay off when it is time to play in the big dance.
In their final conference series of the year the Billikens will take on the Charlotte 49ers at the Billiken Sports Complex.
This match-up could possibly turn into a series determining who will go to the conference tournament and who will not.
Conference USA rules only allow the top eight teams in conference to go to the conference tournament. To make it into the NCAA tournament a team has to have between 30 and 35 wins.
At this point, the Billikens’ only chance of getting into the tournament would be to win the conference tournament.
Remember, it was just two years ago that the Billikens made it all the way to the conference semi-final. Making the NCAA tournament would be a great accomplishment for the Bills, but before they can think about that they must qualify for the C-USA tourney, and that will all be determined in the next two weeks.
