LAWTON, Okla. (Feb. 1, 2012) — Cameron battled through adversity on the opening day of the 2012 baseball season, but in the end, walked away with the sweep, 6-5 and 10-7.
“It was the first game of the year, so everyone’s trying to get it going,” said Head Coach Todd Holland. “We had three errors (in game one), but to win, we can’t have any. It’s little things like that. We need to learn to finish games and we’ll be alright.”
Game one got off to a quick start, as leadoff hitter Kevin Lum drove the first pitch of the game right back up the middle for a leadoff single. After a walk to Benshell Garcia, Josh Dawson drove in the first run of the season with a single up the middle. Garcia would go on to score an unearned run on an error by the ECU third baseman to make it 2-0.
Cameron would score one more run in the first on an RBI single by Nick Smith. But as quick as it began, the rally ended on a double-play, followed by a strike-out.
ECU would begin to chip away at the lead, scoring one run in both the second and third innings, to bring it to 3-2 heading into the fourth. In the top of the fourth, the Tigers scored three runs on two hits and two errors, while also taking advantage of five hit batsman by the Aggie starter, to pull ahead 5-3.
Cameron would respond during its half of the fourth, plating Taylor Lyons and Kaleb Brawner on an error by the ECU right fielder to knot the game at five.
Action would stall until the bottom of the ninth, as the Aggie made a play to win the game. The Aggies started the inning with back to back walks, placing the pressure on the shoulders of the Tigers. Tyler Cox came up with a chance to win the game, and delivered, as he drove a ball to third base, forcing the defender to make a play. An errant throw home was all she wrote, as the Aggies won 6-5 in extra innings.
“We didn’t play that great,” Holland said. “It seemed that everything that could go wrong, did. We had hit batters, walks … you name it. But we came back and won the game … that’s a good thing. It was good to see the team come back like they did.”
ECU struck first in game two , but it did not take long for Cameron to respond, as the team scored four runs in the second inning on five hits and one error, highlighted by RBI singles from Waukau and Brad Blummer.
By the sixth inning, Cameron had padded its lead to seven, but ECU failed to go quietly, as the team scored four runs in the top of the sixth to close it to 10-7. The game was eventually called between innings due to darkness, with a final score of 10-7 in favor of the Aggies.
We jumped on them a little bit in game two,” Holland said. “The more game at bats you get, the better. In about a month, we should be alright. It just takes time. It was good to get the win, but we need to learn to put people away when we get to that point. We need to finish better.”
While Holland said he is pleased with the victories, he said there are still plenty of things to work on.
“We need to play a lot better defense,” he said. “I need to do some explaining about situational hitting and what certain players jobs are. We ran the bases well … but there are things we need to work on. It’s a matter of figuring it out. Luckily, we only have 48 games left to do that.”
Cameron (2-0, 0-0) will return to action at noon Friday at McCord Field as it prepares to take on Oklahoma Panhandle State.
