Depleted Eagles Come Up Empty Against Franklin Pierce
May 31, 2006

Complete Box Score

There’s a reason gasoline is approaching $3 a gallon. Fuel is a precious commodity.

Don’t believe it? Ask the Ashland University baseball team.

The Eagles’ tank was already near empty when they began their elimination game with Franklin Pierce on Wednesday afternoon (May 31) at Paterson Field in Montgomery, AL. On Tuesday night, AU played late into the night, losing a heart-breaking, 13-inning game to Chico State.

Now, 15 and a half hours later, under a blazing sun that caused the temperature to go past 90 degrees, Ashland was back in action against the Ravens. The hearts were willing, but there was a definite energy shortage as the Eagles lost to Franklin Pierce, 7-2.

The loss eliminates the Eagles (47-17) from the tournament and sends the Ravens to the tournament semifinals. On Thursday night, Franklin Pierce (46-12) gets top-ranked Tampa, which is 2-0 in Montgomery. In Ashland’s first game in Montgomery, the Eagles handled the Ravens, 14-4.

“They played so late last night,” remarked Franklin Pierce head coach Jayson King of the Eagles. “It was an emotional game, a game they probably felt they should have won. You combine that with the way this went, it’s tough.”

King was speaking about the fact that Ashland fell behind early and played from behind all afternoon. For the third consecutive game in Montgomery, AU saw the opposition score first. The Ravens led, 1-0 after one inning and 3-0 after three innings.

“It’s hard to say,” sighed AU head coach John Schaly when quizzed about bouncing back from the late night. “Maybe falling behind, if we had gotten the lead it might have been a little different. It’s hard to say. I felt our guys had a good approach, they put it (the Chico game) behind them.”

AU fell behind in the second inning when Kim Hart’s two-out single to left field off of Jim Barry (9-4) brought home Scott Savastano, who had walked and stolen second base.

The third inning brought more misfortune for the Eagles. With two outs, Mike Chambers slapped a single to left and moved to second when left fielder David Waters let the ball roll to the fence. Shortstop Garrett Olson was intentionally walked and pitcher Bryan Duplissie singled to score Chambers and make the lead, 2-0.

The third run came due to some trickery on the Ravens’ part. With Duplissie on first and Olson on third, Duplissie took off from first, attempting to get in a rundown. He managed that and Olson broke from third. The Eagles turned their attention to Olson, but catcher Eric Zattlin’s throw down the third base line during a rundown went into left field and Olson scored to make it 3-0.

“He (Olson) didn’t break at the proper time,” admitted King. “It threw the play off. It’s not used too often so even if it doesn’t work like it’s supposed to, good things happen.”

Ashland was able to put runners on base against Duplissie (7-1), but struggled to push much across. In the third inning, with Waters on second, Justin Randall singled to left and Waters was thrown out at the plate by left fielder Randy Fenton. AU didn’t put a tally on the scoreboard until the sixth when a Randall single brought in Waters and Casey Jirsa bounced into a force play that scored Bryan Thrasher from third base.

The Eagles wouldn’t see home plate again. Duplissie allowed two hits over the final three innings, but he wasn’t losing steam. The Ravens scored a run in the seventh to make it 4-2 and drove Barry from the mound. Todd Schlenkerman came on and limited the damage in that inning, but he was less successful in the eighth. The first two hitters he faced in that stanza, Duplissie and Savastano, singled and both later scored, as did Hart, who reached on Ashland’s third error of the afternoon. Ryan Douglas and Josh Davidson both took the mound before the Ravens were retired.

As for Duplissie, he scattered nine hits over nine innings. He walked just one and struck out two.

“My mentality was to go deep into the game,” said the righthander. “We have to look to save our pitching. One walk, that’s unusual, but that was the game plan. I wanted to go right after hitters and it worked.”

Waters was 3-for-4 and Randall had a 2-for-4 game. Chambers, Duplissie, Fenton and catcher Matt Anderson had two hits apiece for Franklin Pierce. The teams combined for 20 hits but only one went for extra bases – a double by Anderson.