Baseball Grinds Through Tough Schedule

Up until this point, the baseball season has been quite a roller coaster ride.

Through its ups and down, the Lions have shown flashes of greatness as they look to keep improving on the year. But, playing a grueling stretch of 14 games in 19 days has led to unfavorable outcomes on the field.

“In the game of baseball, any team can beat anyone. Most other sports the favorites will usually win, but not with baseball,” senior Robert Purpura said.

The last ten games have only resulted in three victories, most recently in four game series against Fresno Pacific and Cal Baptist.

Despite being close in the contests, mental and physical errors proved costly because of the sheer number of innings and games the team had to battle through. In their four game set against the Sunbirds, they won two of the four games, but were outscored seven runs to 16.

“This year we haven’t been able to catch any breaks. We have had 21 one run games and that one run could have gone either way,” Purpura said.

Against the Lancers from Cal Baptist, the Pride scraped away a victory in the last game of the series which featured continued troubles for the team. Scoring 13 runs compared to 23 for the Lancers, put the Lions in a tough position for the squad.

Lions pitcher Robert Purpura was named GSAC pitcher of the Week on April 11. He appeared in three of six games for the team.

“It was a great feeling. After getting back on the team I needed to show my teammates that I appreciate the team and will work as hard as I can to help us win,” Purpura said.

The Blue and Gold currently sits with a record of 18-24 overall with 14-18 in GSAC competition. They are ranked eighth in the conference with six games remaining on their schedule.

The Lions compete again on April 20 against La Sierra University for a doubleheader beginning at 1:00 p.m, before finishing their season schedule against Concordia university beginning on April 27.