ARKADELPHIA, Ark. (Feb. 10, 2012) ― Todd Holland’s Cameron Baseball Team had a tough go against Henderson State Friday, dropping two seven innings games in a four-game road series, 6-1 and 6-3.
“It (the conditions) was miserable out here,” said Head Coach Todd Holland. “It was rainy, and then all of a sudden got nice. But that’s just road baseball. (The losses) were an accumulation of everything. We didn’t hit that well. We just didn’t do anything that spectacular. In the second game, we were playing well then one pitch turned the tide. After losing the first two games, we’re trying to scrap and fight.”
Henderson State got on the boards early and often in game one, scoring runs in the first three innings, including four runs in the second. The inning looked to be early fast, as Cameron pitcher Wade Myatt retired the first two batters, but failed to retire the third, leading to a two-out rally. The Reddies would go on to load the bases and score four runs on a walk, single and a double to make the score 5-0. The home team added one more run in the third to make the score 6-0.
Cameron’s (6-3, 0-0) only run came in the fourth inning after a leadoff double by Benshell Garcia. Garcia advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Kevin Lum and came around to score on a sac fly by Nick Smith.
Both teams were held scoreless the rest of the game, but Henderson State did threaten, leaving one runner on base in the fourth and three in the fifth. Myatt took the loss for Cameron after allowing six runs, only one earned, on 10 hits in 4.1 innings.
“We just never really got the bats going today,” Holland said “We looked like we were playing hesitant. We talked about makings adjustments at the plate all last week, but I still didn’t see any today. We are just trying to find a chemistry that works.”
Will Thomas took the mound for the Black and Gold in game two and started strong, holding the Reddies scoreless in the first two innings. But for the second game in a row, Henderson State was able to post a four-run, two-out rally to take an early lead.
Thomas struck out the first batter of the inning, before allowing a single and two walks to load the bases. A pop-out gave the Reddies there second out of the inning. But as soon as Cameron began to see daylight, Thomas made a mistake and Henderson capitalized with a grand slam.
Thomas walked the bases loaded before being relieved by James Rhodes, who was able to come in and end the bleeding with a pop fly to third base.
The Aggies responded in the fourth as Taylor Lyons scored on a Josh Dawson ground out to the shortstop. Lyons walked to begin the inning, advanced to second on a wild pitch and third on an Andy Garcia fly out.
The fifth was even more kind to CU. Brad Blumer led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on an error by the pitcher. Tyler Cox came up next and singled to drive Blumer to third. Lum laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to put two runners in scoring position with only one out. With two ducks on the pond, Smith delivered his second and third RBI’s on the day to make the score 4-3 in favor of the Reddies.
Henderson State would score two more runs in the sixth to seal the 6-3 victory.
“The team knows we have to win tomorrow to split … they are ready,” Holland said. “We’ve got to come back and play our tails off tomorrow. They’ve got a lot of energy with this being Henderson’s opening series. The deal with everybody we’ve played is that it has been their opening series. They are excited and that’s a part of it. We’ll figure it out. It is our first road trip as a team. This is a new team … we’re learning a lot about each other.”
Cameron will fight for the split in Arkadelphia at noon tomorrow. Live stats will be available online.
