April 7th – Different City, Same Result

Hoping that a change of scenery would change the Geoducks fortune on the field was crushed immediately in the first game of a double header on Saturday, April 7th. The Geoducks visted the Eastern Washington University Eagles and were dealt another shutout loss, this time 25-0. Manager Kip Arney tried to shake up the lineup a bit and placed senior, Antonio Olguin on the mound to start the opener. In the previous two series, it was sophomore, Trevor Kinahan who was given the nod in the opening games, but Arney felt like a change was needed. Olguin had previous been used as a mop up reliever and was making the first start of the season. One thing that Arney liked about having the senior on the mound was that he didn’t mess around and let the batters put the ball in play. But when the infield behind him failed to support him by booting the ball for 3 errors through the first 7 batters, it was no shock to see the first inning end with the Eagles having a commanding 19-0 lead. Once again the offense remained non-existent as they only mustered two singles, one by catcher Dan Visser and the other by designated hitter Dave Raileanu. After the first inning, the defense for Evergreen State settled in and gave up only 6 runs over the next three innings.

Making his Geoduck debut was freshman pitcher Ben Ziakin. The lone lefty on the squad definitely showed his inexperience as he gave up a single to the first batter and then proceeded to let that batter advance all the way to third on two balks, which is when the pitcher makes an illegal motion while on the pitching mound and awarding the runners on base to automatically move up one base. After the double balks, he gave up another single and then served on a platter a home run to EWU’s big power hitting first baseman, Shane Hummel. It was Hummel’s third bomb on the season and he leads the team in that category and in rbi’s with 19. However after the giving up the long ball, Ziakin settled down to retire three of the next four batters before heading back to the dugout.