Beloit College baseball Buccaneers find themselves in rare slump

BELOIT — It’s been a rare occurrence for Beloit College’s baseball team, but it suddenly finds itself in the throes of a slump.

The Buccaneers are still 17-10 overall and 10-6 in Midwest Conference play, but they lost the first game of a double-header with Lawrence University 10-5 on Tuesday and trailed 5-2 in the fourth inning of the nightcap when a downpour suspended the action at The Ballpark at Strong Stadium.

Beloit has now lost 4-of-5 in MWC action.

“We’ve won our fair share but we’re struggling right now,” Beloit head coach Dave DeGeorge. “We have not played well defensively since returning from Florida and I don’t know why that is. We were fantastic on defense in Florida and since then we have managed to make lots of key mistakes. We’re putting ourselves in tough situations.

“Our pitching has been OK. We’ve had moments where it hasn’t been quite good enough. Offensively, we’re not as good as we need to be right now.”

In spite of a solid nucleus of returnees, DeGeorge said he knew this season could be difficult because it was asking a lot for some of his hitters to replicate the amazing success they had during a conference championship season a year ago.

“People think because they did it last year they’re going to do it again,” the coach said. “It’s a hard thing. Expectations have to be about preparation and how I’m going to handle myself. In baseball, if you just expect to have this many hits and this many RBIs you’re just setting yourself up for problems. Some of the guys who were on fire a year ago are struggling right now. It’s natural for them to really put pressure on themselves in key situations and it’s hard to be that successful when you’re putting that kind of pressure on yourself.”

The fact a number of Bucs returned doesn’t mean they’re playing the same positions as last season. Graduation by several key players caused Beloit to start a different player this season at first base, second, shortstop, catcher, left field, right field and designated hitter.

That’s not to say one good series can’t turn everything back around for the Bucs.

“If we can win the series at Grinnell and at Monmouth we get in the conference tournament and once we do that we’re good enough to win it,” DeGeorge said. “(The tournament) is just a two-day deal.”

DeGeorge said when he looks at Lawrence he sees a team playing a lot like his 2023 Bucs.

“They’re playing great; they’re swinging free with a lot of confidence,” he said. “If they make a mistake it’s no big deal, they’ll get the next one. They just outplayed us.”

Beloit grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the first game as Connor Vogel collected an RBI single and Matt O’Leary scored on a passed ball.

It stayed 2-0 until the fourth when Lawrence pushed across a run against Beloit starter Eamon Burke (2-3). They added two more in the fifth to lead 3-2, but an RBI single by Jack Alport in the bottom of the inning tied it.

The Vikings (21-8, 13-2) tacked on three in the seventh, highlighted by a solo homer by Edan Perez and a two-run shot by Taylor Freeman. Perez added a two-run double in the eighth to make it 10-3 before Brett Kiger picked up two RBIs to close Beloit within 10-5 in the ninth.

Burke took the loss, allowing 10 hits and five runs in 5 2-3 innings. Miles Souza was touched for five runs in 2 1-3 innings before Joshua Stern worked a scoreless ninth. Lawrence finished with 16 hits, including six for extra bases.

Junior outfielder Riley Ponio smacked a solo homer in game two, but the Bucs trailed 5-2 in the fourth when the game was suspended. It won’t resume until April 24 when Beloit travels to Appleton to play the Vikings.

• LINESCORE

LAWRENCE 10, BELOIT 5

Lawrence 000 122 320 — 10 16 0

Beloit 200 010 002 — 5 5 2

Leading hitters: LU, Hartlaub 3x5, 2 runs, 1 rbi; Perez 4x5, 2 runs, 3rbi; Charon 3x3, 1run; Freeman 1x3, 2 runs, 3 rbi; Gutowski 2x5, 2 runs, 1 rbi; Depew 2x2, 1 run, 1 rbi. BC, Alport 1x2, 2 runs, 1 rbi; O’Leary 1x2, 2 runs; Vogel 1x3, 1 rbi; Kiger 1x5, 2 rbi. 2B: Hartlaub, Perez, Gutowski, Depew. HR: Perez, Freeman.

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): LU, Katz 4.2-4-3-3-2-2; Brust (W,3-0) 3.1-1-0-0-4-6; Palmer 1.0-0-2-2-3-1. BC, Burke (L,2-3) 5.2-10-5-5-1-3; Souza 2.1-6-5-5-0-3; Stern 1.0-0-0-0-2-0.