Baseball fueled by strong pitching staff

Sophomore Mike Carbo contributed two runs to JCU’s record setting 10-1 victory over Marietta.

Senior Matt Fort was two strikeouts short of a school record after striking out 16 batters against Baldwin-Wallace last week. The Blue Streaks pitching staff has kept opponents quiet at the plate this year.

The John Carroll University baseball team is establishing themselves as a serious contender in the Ohio Athletic Conference.

At 4-2, they are currently tied with Heidelberg for third place and trail first place Mount Union by two games.  Mount Union will visit JCU on April 26.

A major reason JCU has climbed into contention in the OAC was an important split with Marietta.

In a doubleheader last Saturday against the perennial power, JCU would prove that their early season success was no fluke.

No JCU base runner would make it past first base as they managed just three hits in the first game. Junior Paul O’Donnell allowed only four hits, but it would be enough to give Marietta the only run of the game.

In the night cap, JCU’s offense erupted for ten runs as freshman Tony Evanko joined teammate senior Matt Fort as the only pitchers on the team with a 4-0 record.  

JCU would break the game open with a three-run rally in the fourth inning that extended the lead from 3-0 to 6-0.

The Blue Streaks would go on to win 10-1. The nine run margin was the largest win any JCU team has had over Marietta in program history.

“Marietta was definitely a turning point for this team,” senior Brandon Kurtz said. “We proved to the conference and ourselves that we’re a contender this season.  We definitely have the mindset that we’re the team to beat right now, regardless of records.”

Perhaps the most disappointing part of the Blue Streaks conference record is that they could be tied for first with Mount Union at 6-0.  

JCU wasted a solid pitching effort by Kurtz, who went all seven innings and struck out nine batters against rival Baldwin-Wallace.

However, the Blue Streak offense could not produce and B-W managed to hold on to a 4-2 victory.

In the second game of the doubleheader, Fort took the mound and almost made history.

Going all nine innings, Fort shut out the Yellow Jackets while giving up just five hits and striking out 16, just two shy of the school record.  
A two-run double by junior Michael Krainz in the bottom of the third gave JCU a 2-0 lead. Senior Sean McCarthy added an RBI single in the fifth, which was enough for JCU as they held on for the 3-0 victory.  

The Blue Streaks took on Notre Dame College last Thursday and O’Donnell and freshman Michael Eden kept ND scoreless through four innings.

An RBI single by McCarthy in the fifth broke the scoring open.  Senior Adam Sockel followed with a two-run homer to give JCU a 3-0 lead.  

However, that would be all for the offense. The JCU bullpen would suffer its worse collapse of the season, giving up four runs in the final four innings as JCU fell 4-3.

Kurtz noted that JCU is now focusing on their next three OAC opponents in order to separate themselves in the standings.

JCU will face Muskingum, Ohio Northern and Otterbein in the coming weeks. The games will determine whether or not the Blue Streaks make the playoffs.

“Our goal is to win the regular season so we can host the OAC tournament and bring home the championship on our home field,” Kurtz said.

While he and teammate Fort, who was named OAC Player of the Week, have been nothing short of dominant on the mound, Kurtz wastes no time in pointing out how important the underclassmen have been to the team this year.  

Evanko has a 4-0 record as a starter and freshman infielder John Hastings leads the team with a .355 batting average and is tied with Lewis for a team-high 22 hits.  

“We had some holes to fill at the beginning of the season,” Kurtz said. “But with the way these young guys have stepped up, there really isn’t a weak spot on this team.  They’ve been vital to our success.”

The Blue Streaks have found their way into the national spotlight.

The team received votes in the D3Baseball.com poll two weeks ago and will surely crawl into the top 25 with more quality wins.