Rough day for Jimmie baseball at Jack Brown Stadium

Michael Savaloja, The Jamestown Sun, N.D.
·8 min read

Apr. 18—Brice Foster doubled the entire offense produced by the University of Jamestown on Saturday with one swing of the bat in the sixth inning of game 3 at Jack Brown Stadium.

Foster's grand slam to left field nearly dug the Jimmies out of a five-run deficit to visiting Mount Marty, but a rocky afternoon remained that way for the orange and black.

The Lancers hung on for an 8-6 victory, sweeping all three seven-inning Great Plains Athletic Conference baseball games from the Jimmies. The day began at noon with UJ falling 3-2 before the Lancers' Blake Svoboda struck out 13 Jimmies in a 4-0 complete game shutout in game 2.

A fourth game, previously scheduled for Sunday (April 18) beginning at 11 a.m., has been canceled and will not be made up.

"About the only piece of momentum we had was the grand slam by Foster, and that was in the 20th inning of the day," University of Jamestown baseball coach Tom Hager said. "It was a difficult day. We didn't make plays that we should've made, we didn't pitch as well as we can pitch and we didn't make adjustments at the plate."

The Jimmies' two runs through the first two games were the product of back-to-back home runs sent over the fence by Lincoln Trujillo and Matt Meraz leading off the second inning of the day. But otherwise, the Jimmies scattered seven hits and stranded 11 runners leading up to game 3.

Jamestown spotted the Lancers three runs in the opening frame of the finale, but was able to score runs on a wild pitch and a Dirk Eymundson single before Mount Marty's Colin Muth drove in a pair with a homer in the sixth to put the visitors ahead 7-2.

UJ's Grant Okawa led off the bottom of the sixth with a double, and a Mount Marty error combined with a Trujillo swinging-bunt single loaded the bases with nobody out. Meraz flew out to right on the first pitch he saw from Lancers' starter Dylan Nicholson before Foster took a 1-0 pitch yard for four RBIs and chased Nicholson off the mound.

Foster also doubled during a 5-for-8 afternoon.

"It's one guy at a time," said Foster, when asked about the Jimmies' attempt at overcoming a slow offensive day. "Everybody on the team knows that anybody can start it at any point, and once someone gets on just try and rally around that guy and get some energy going in the dugout.

"Next guy up. Get a hit and keep it rolling."

Chase Hacker shouldered the game 3 loss for the Jimmies, allowing five runs — two earned — in an inning of work after getting the start. Foster came over from second base to pitch 3 2/3 scoreless innings, getting UJ to within one out of the sixth.

Muth, Mount Marty's senior first baseman, clubbed a fifth-inning solo shot off UJ starter Dru Fitz in the Lancers' 3-2 game 1 victory, and back-to-back UJ errors contributed to a two-run Mount Marty sixth. Fitz took the loss, unable to get an out in the sixth before being charged all three runs with just one earned.

Svoboda owned game 2, going the distance on 117 pitches and recording 13 of 21 outs via strikeout. The senior right-hander struck out Foster, Meraz, Tayler Cullen, and Luke Shekeryk two times each.

Svoboda notched his 18th career victory and has 219 career strikeouts for the Lancers.

"I was really impressed with how well our pitchers competed today and executed the game plan in regards to how we wanted to approach a couple of Jamestown's hitters," Mount Marty baseball coach Andy Bernatow said. "Just impressed and proud of my kids.

"Jamestown is a great program and to come into here and get one would be a big deal. To pull off the day that we did today is pretty special."

A Billy Hancock solo homer to lead off the second was all the scoring the Lancers needed in the 4-0 victory. Hancock went 6-for-10 on the day with 4 RBIs, while Muth batted 4-for-7 with two homers and four runs driven in.

The Jimmies' Kensaku Akiya pitched the first 4 2/3 innings, allowing three earned runs on seven hits with three strikeouts.

"Give their pitchers credit. They threw really well, they got ahead, they were able to throw their offspeed for strikes and they kept us off balance," Hager said. "We just had a really hard time adjusting."

The three victories moved the Lancers to 23-14 overall and drew them even with the Jimmies for third in the GPAC standings at 11-8.

"We're trying to climb the standings as much as we can," Bernatow said. "We've felt like we've left a few games on the field, but now we feel like we're starting to hit stride. I think this is a sign of things to come for this team for the remainder of the season."

The Jimmies fell to 25-15 overall and are scheduled to play one nine-inning game Tuesday at Mayville State before resuming conference action next weekend at Morningside (April 24) and 22nd-ranked Concordia University (April 25).

"It was a very difficult day for Jimmie baseball today," Hager said. "We got outplayed, we got out-coached and hopefully we can be better next week."

Foster, who transferred in from Menlo College, California, this semester, said he's learned pretty quickly how the Jimmies plan to respond following a day like Saturday.

"It's back to ya," Foster said. "It's how do you respond? How do you get back to it?

"We gotta come back, get a good week of practice in, get fired up, and get on to the next one."

Mount Marty University 3, University of Jamestown 2

MM 000 012 0 — 3 4 1

UJ 020 000 0 — 2 4 2

Batteries: M, Tyler Priest, Chris Rofe (6) and Billy Hancock. J, Dru Fitz, Cameron Jenkins (6) and Connor Mormon. W-Priest. L-Fitz. S-Rofe.

Highlights: M, Priest 5 Ip, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 76 NP; Rofe 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 2 SO; Colin Muth 1-1, HR, 2 RBI, BB; Caid Koletzy 2-3.

J, Fitz 5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 SO, 89 NP; Jenkins 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 3 SO; Lincoln Trujillo 1-2, HR, RBI; Matt Meraz 1-2, HR, RBI; Brice Foster 2-3.

Records: Mount Marty 21-14, 9-8 GPC. Jamestown 25-13, 11-6.

Mount Marty University 4, University of Jamestown 0

MM 010 021 0 — 4 11 0

UJ 000 000 0 — 0 5 0

Batteries: M, Blake Svoboda and Billy Hancock. Akiya Kensaku, Noah Soltero (5), Andy Reed (5), Cameron Multer (7). W-Svoboda. L-Akiya.

Highlights: M, Svoboda 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 13 SO, 117 NP; Hancock 2-4, HR, 3 RBI; Nick Martinez 2-3, 2B, RBI; Jet Weber 2-4, Josh Roemen 2-4, Colen Muth 2-3.

J, Akiya 4 2/3 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 69 NP; Soltero 0 IP, BB; Reed 1 1/3 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO; Multer 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 SO; Brice Foster 1-3, 2B; Brian Rice 1-3, Dylan Dudley 1-2, BB; Matt Meraz 1-3.

Records: Mount Marty 22-14, 10-8 GPAC. Jamestown 25-14, 11-7.

Mount Marty University 8, University of Jamestown 6

MM 320 002 1 — 8 10 1

UJ 110 004 0 — 6 8 1

Batteries: M, Dylan Nicholson, Clayton Chipchase (6), Chris Rofe (7) and Alec Martin. J, Chase Hacker, Brice Foster (4), Cameron Jenkins (5), Austin Pesicka (6), Aaron Pugh (7) and Dirk Dymundson. W-Nicholson. L-Hacker. S-Rofe.

Highlights: M, Nicholson 5 1/3 IP, 8 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO, 84 NP; Chipchase 2/3 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 2 SO; Rofe 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 2 SO; Caid Koletzky 1-4, HR, 2 RBI; Alec Martin 1-3, HR, 2 RBI; David Richardson 1-2, HR, RBI; Colin Muth 1-3, HR, 2 RBI; Billy Hancock 4-4, 2B, RBI.

J, Hacker 1 IP, 3 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO, 24 NP; Foster 3 2/3 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO, 49 NP; Jenkins 1/3 IP, 0 H; Pesicka 1 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO; Pugh 1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO; Foster 2-2, HR, 4 RBI; Brian Rice 1-4, 2B, R; Grant Okawa 1-3, 2B, BB, R; Eymundson 1-2, RBI.

Records: Mount Marty 23-14, 11-8 GPAC. Jamestown 25-15, 11-8 GPAC.