A tough schedule continues to plague the Saint Mary baseball team, as they played a pair of doubleheaders on Friday and Saturday against a Northwood University (Texas) team that entered the weekend having won twice as many games already this season as Saint Mary had even played.
Northwood continued to dominate the opposition, winning 14-1 and 7-0 against USM on Friday before beating them 7-3 and 9-1 on Saturday. The Spires have now lost 12 straight games to start the season, while the Knights (21-6) have won 16 out of their last 17, and USM head coach Rob Miller said they might be a team that makes it to the NAIA World Series later this season.
“We were outmatched, there’s no question about it,” Miller said. “That’s the best team I’ve ever put my team up against. They’re a World Series caliber team, and obviously we’re struggling.”
The Knights also continued to hit the ball with impressive results, mashing six home runs over the weekend. Their team batting average this season is now .354; they are averaging 7.85 runs per game; and among each of their players who have at least two official at bats per game, every single one of them is batting at least .359.
Northwood’s pitching was also impressive, allowing just five runs in 26 innings to Saint Mary while striking out 20 and walking 10. Miller said that his team has run into multiple consecutive opponents with several tough pitchers, and he said that when Northwood collected hits offensively, they were nearly always on hard-hit balls.
“Out of their 40 hits, or whatever they had, I’d say 35 of them were line drives, driving the baseball,” Miller said. “They’re good ... and we’ve faced some of the best pitching I’ve ever seen, let alone in a stretch.”
The Spires did get several good individual performances over the weekend. Jerry Barahman finished the weekend with three shutout innings and only one hit allowed, and catcher Rodney Spillman not only caught three of the four games but went 3-for-8 with a run scored offensively. Pleasant Ridge graduate Josh Barnes also went 3-for-8 and had a stolen base, a walk, an RBI, and a run scored, and fellow PR alum Devin Hupp came back for a strong second day and went 3-for-7 in the doubleheader on Saturday. Jared Baker added a 3-for-5 performance on Saturday, but USM couldn’t come up with the big hit all weekend. They left 19 runners on base.
