BELOIT — Moments before, Beloit College’s baseball team had committed a pair of errors on defense that handed visiting Ripon a 4-1 lead through fourth innings Saturday afternoon.
Before his Buccaneers batted in the bottom of the inning, head coach Dave DeGeorge called a meeting in front of their dugout at The Ballpark at Strong Stadium.
Instead of an explosion, DeGeorge spoke in a soft tone with only an occasional hand gesture. It was one of the least demonstrative dressing downs imaginable.
And it worked.
Beloit stormed back from the three-run deficit to win the game 5-4 and improve to 11-6 overall and 4-2 in Midwest Conference play.
I’m trying to remain calm,” DeGeorge said with a grin. “I’m usually the best version of myself when I am calm so I am trying hard. I think with our guys that’s the way to go. Nobody likes to be yelled at and the guys feel horrible when they mess up. If we can teach something, teach it and then go to work. Let’s win the game in the remaining innings we have.”
The Bucs are an interesting mix of experience, including fifth-year seniors (Matt O’Leary, Evan Zenger, Brett Kiger, and plenty of wet-behind-the-ears underclassmen. On a chilly, windy day, the young players in particular had some of those teachable moments.
Three errors led to Beloit freshman starter Ben Schweit allowing four runs, but only one of them earned. In five innings, the right-hander from Simi Valley, Calif., allowed three hits and a walk while striking out five.
By the time he left, the Bucs had closed that 4-1 gap to 4-3. In the bottom of the fourth, freshman Blake Nelson hit an opposite-field double and another freshman, Nolan Tomsyck knocked him in with a single. The third run scored when Ripon turned a nifty double play on a grounder hit by speedy Jack Alport. The Red Hawks escaped further damage when slugger Brett Kiger got under a fastball and launched a long out to left field.
Schweiz picked a runner off base in a scoreless fifth and then gave way to reliever Kaiya Nishino. He worked out of a jam in a scoreless sixth. After two Bucs were retired quietly in the bottom of the inning, O’Leary lined a double to right center off reliever Brandon Burge. Junior Connor Vogel tied the game at 4-4 with another double. Ripon brought in Brady Wotruba to pitch to Kiger, who grounded a single into left to give Beloit a 5-4 advantage.
“I will take that every time,” DeGeorge said. “The wind was very hard on guys trying to hit the ball to left field.”
Pena did the rest. Retiring the side in order in the seventh and then wriggling out of a runners on first-and-third one out situation in the eighth with a pair of strikeouts. The Red Hawks also had a leadoff single in the ninth and bunted him to second. Pena got a strikeout and coaxed a flyout to end the game.
“All of our pitchers were outstanding, starting with Ben,” DeGeorge said. “One of the problems we’ve had is that our pitchers have been great until we’ve had a mistake. Then it bothers them. For a freshman in his first start at home in a huge game, to calmly say, ‘I got it,’ was impressive. Kaiya (Nishino) came in and threw a scoreless inning and Harvey was awesome.
“Harvey earned all-conference last year and that’s the kind of pitcher he is. He really believes in himself and he has really good swing-and-miss stuff. With his kind of velocity and breaking ball movement batters have to get after it or it’s by them. We are very lucky to have a pitcher like him on the back end.”
Pena says he always looks at a windy day as a challenge.
“You never know where the wind is coming from out here, in or out, left or right,” he said. “You try to command your pitches the best you can. We see it in practice all the time, so it’s nothing new.”
Pena said he simply trusted his defense and tried to keep the ball over the plate.
“I used some sliders here and there, but they had trouble catching up to the fastballs no matter where I put them so we threw a lot of those,” he said.
Pena said he enjoys his role on the Bucs, who took 2-of-3 from the Red Hawks.
“I’m a long reliever or closer depending on the day,” he said. “We have a lot of young talent. The freshmen class that came in is really good. I think they;re really going to push us and we better perform to keep our spots.”
Beloit outhit Ripon 7-6. Vogel at 2-for-4 was the only Buc with multiple hits. The Bucs did collect four doubles. Alex Pankratz led Ripon with two hits. The Red Hawks’ lone extra base hit was a double.
•BOXSCORE:
BELOIT 5, RIPON 4
Ripon College;002;200;000;--;4;6;1
Beloit College;001;202;00x;--;5;7;3
RIPON (ab-r-h-rbi): Burns, c, 3-1-1-1; Pankratz, 2b, 5-1-2-0; Fulwiler, pr, 0-0-0-0; Tenny, lf, 4-0-0-0; Hickman, 1b, 5-0-0-0; Slattery, dh, 4-0-0-0; Plaster, ph, 1-0-0-0; N. Terrell, ss, 2-1-1-0; Anderson, rf, 2-0-0-0; Cox, cf, 4-1-1-0; Sheehy, 3b, 4-0-1-0. Totals: 34-4-6-1.
BELOIT (ab-r-h-rbi): Alport, cf, 4-1-0-0; O’Leary, ss, 4-1-1-0; Vogel, lf-1b, 4-1-2-1; Kiger, dh, 3-0-1-1; Zenger 2b, 4-0-0-1; Souza, 3b, 3-0-1-0; Meyers, 1b, 3-1-0-0; Pouzar, lf, 0-0-0-0; Nelson, c, 2-1-1-0; Hubal, rf, 0-0-0-0; Tomsyck, rf, 3-0-1-1; Brankey, r,f 1-0-0-0. Totals: 31-5-7-4.
DP: RC 1. LOB: RC 10. 2B: Pankratz, O’Leary, Vogel, Souza, Nelson. Sac: Anderson. SB: Pankratz, Tenny, Cox.
PIitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): RC, Mammoser 3.0-3-3-3-4-1; Burge (L,0-1) 2.2-3-2-2-1-1; Wotruba (2.1-1-0-0-2-3). BC, Scheit 5.0-3-4-1-1-5; Nishino (W,2-0) 1.0-1-0-0-1-1; Pena (S,2) 3.0-2-0-0-1-4.
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