The University of Akron Athletics
Zips Baseball Newsletter
May 13 | Baseball
Hello Zip Alumni and Friends:
One week to go! We are in the home stretch of the season in position to qualify for postseason play in the MAC Tournament.
Since my last newsletter, we have won six out of our last eight games. We are actually playing our best baseball with solid pitching, especially from the bullpen, and swinging much better overall. Following our two game series with losses to East Division leading Buffalo, we beat No. 17 Pitt by 6-1 in a midweek game, where Jon Pusateri finally showed the stuff and consistency he's capable of producing. That game, for some reason, began a string of games where the offense produced much more quality at bats, which in essence produced more hits than normal.
We hosted Western Michigan last weekend winning the first two games by 7-6 and 3-2, and then losing Sunday 3-2. Friday's game was a come from behind victory after being behind 5-1 following the top of the fifth inning. Our offense rallied for four runs in the fifth and two, game-deciding runs in the seventh inning. Freshman JT Brubaker didn't last long and it took great performances from our bullpen to hold their offense in check as our offense chipped away for the comeback.
Following the series, we had another good performance out of Pusateri, as he handled Penn State at Lee Jackson Field. By far, this was his best outing of the year, going six innings on the mound with one run allowed and six strikeouts. Having two good outings in a row gave him much needed confidence, and obviously helped us maintain momentum during the weekday games. Final score 11-2.
We just concluded a very important weekend at Central Michigan beating them 8-7 and 11-2 in the opening two games, and losing Sunday 18-8. Friday's game produced another comeback win after we fell behind 7-2 after four innings. Again, Brubaker didn't fare well lasting only 1.2 innings. JT is having difficulty handling any adversity which I'll attribute to being a freshman starting Friday games in the MAC. Other young guys have gotten better and handle it well, but JT is still learning and developing. Following his departure, Pusateri followed junior Andrew Fanning in relief producing zero runs in 4.1 innings of work. On top of that, he had six strikeouts and only one walk for his third quality performance in a row. After giving up 7 runs in the first four innings, the bullpen shut down the Chips not giving up any runs which gave our offense a chance for the comeback. It was a great team win.
Saturday's performance by freshman starter John Valek was a masterpiece. 8.1 innings on five hits, one walk, and four strikeouts, with one hit being a drag bunt and one up the middle off the end of the bat needs no further description. We took him out in the ninth after giving up his first run with the bases loaded.
Sunday was a pitchers' duel producing 38 hits between both teams! Two consecutive 7-run innings did us in. It was one of those games where momentum took over and it couldn't be stopped. Tough day on the mound for the Zips. To our players' credit, they showed the fight we've been looking for the entire season and battled for the entire 27 innings over the weekend. The Zips family would be proud of the effort level and competitive fire shown on the diamond this weekend.
We travel to Xavier Tuesday before taking on the Golden Flashes for the last weekend of the regular season beginning this Thursday at Canal Park for the Diamond Classic game with proceeds benefiting Children's Hospital. Friday and Saturday's games will be played at Lee Jackson Field. I'm not sure how we'll come out next weekend, but our guys are showing signs of confidence and a competitive attitude at the right time. We are currently tied for the eighth and final spot in making the MAC tournament so it'll come down to the wire and we certainly need your support if you are near enough to see us in action. Hope to see you this week! You can see the current standings at www.mac-sports.com.
Another reminder regarding our alumni golf outing in July. We will be hosting our annual golf outing this summer on Monday, July 22 at Medina Country Club. If you're interested in participating in the outing, please contact Alexa Doutt by phone at 330-972-2695 or email at asd9@uakron.edu.
As always, GO ZIPS!!!
Head Baseball Coach
