The Eagles looked to be back into early season form after it’s 6-1 win against Kentucky Wesleyan College Tuesday night.
USI (13-10 overall, 4-9 in the GLVC) which has struggled to find success after a strong season opening won the first of it’s 11-game homestand.
Sophomore pitcher Ben Wright took the mound just three days after pitching eight innings against Saint Joseph’s University.
“Usually as a starting pitcher, you get five to six days rest which helps out a lot,” Wright said. “But when Coach says you’re throwing, you go out there and throw. You don’t have to time to worry about it.”
After KWC collected four of its six hits in the first two innings, Wright settled down on the mound throwing three hitless inning. Wright threw 84 pitches, had fives hit with zero earned runs, lowering his era to 2.09 after seven innings of work.
“I just wanted to go out throwing strikes and basically get themselves out,” Wright said. “Today that worked out. Offspeed mixed well today, I was able to put strikes where I wanted to, so all in all it was a good night.”
The Eagles put three points on the board in the fifth inning, which started off with a leadoff double from freshman first baseman Andrew Cope who later scored off a single from senior right fielder B.J. Willis. Willis would later score off a single and second baseman Kyle Niemeier would score off a wild pitch to end the rally.
“I was just trying to see pitches and go with our approach with trying to hit balls the other way.” Cope said. “We try to come out and attack every inning because every team in this conference is tough.”
The team’s approach at the plate has been better than some of the previous games, said Baseball Head Coach Tracy Archuleta
“More games like this will get us back on track,” Archuleta said. “It’s all about getting confidence in our guys and being able to put some wins together.”
USI takes on the University of Indianapolis in a three-game series this weekend as a part of its homestand.
“Being able to play at home over this many games is great,” Archuleta said.