A little bit of sunshine and fresh air is usually a blessing, but it wasn't for the Brown baseball team this weekend as they headed to the South.
Playing for the first time on a grass field this year and against Southern teams already in their midseason, the baseball team, whose record is 1-3, dropped three of four games at the Georgia Southern Eagle Invitational. The Bears committed 21 errors that led to 19 unearned runs in the losses, though the defense did hold up in a victory over Kennesaw State University.
Though Head Coach Marek Drabinski said he was "not trying to make excuses" for his players, he attributed their fielding problems to the lack of outdoor practice due to the cold New England weather. The team has been practicing indoors thus far and has practiced outside only twice, both times on artificial turf.
"It's just a different challenge because you're not taking ground balls off the (Olney-Margolies Athletic Center) surface," he said. "The thing about Southern fields is that they're really hard and quick."
In the season opener on Friday night, the Bears lost 9-2 as the GSU Eagles, whose record is 11-6, battered starting pitcher Ethan Silverstein '07 for six runs in the first three innings. Eagles pitcher Brian Wilkerson kept Brown off-balance all night on his way to a complete game, allowing only two runs on second baseman Bryan Tews' '07 bases-loaded single and first baseman Jeff Dietz's '08 solo homer.
"We were really never in that game," Drabinski said, referring to Brown's poor offensive showing.
The Bears got off to a better start Saturday in their second game against the Eagles. They led 5-1 in the third and 8-4 in the fifth, thanks to catcher Devin Thomas' '07 two-run homer and leftfielder Brian Kelaher's '08 RBI single. But GSU blew the game open with a four-run fifth inning and seven-run sixth inning, taking advantage of four Brown errors in the process. Bears pitchers James Cramphin '07 and Alex Silverman '08, who took the loss, both pitched relatively well, combining to throw eight innings while giving up four earned runs. The defense committed seven errors that led to 12 unearned runs in the 16-9 loss.
But in the nightcap, the Bears defense showed drastic improvement against the KSU Owls (6-6) to win their first game, 10-2. Will Weidig '10 threw six shutout innings for the win, with the defense helping him by playing error-free ball. The key inning was the top of the second, when Bruno scored seven runs behind RBIs from Tews, Thomas, Dietz, designated hitter J.J. Eno '08 and centerfielder Steve Daniels '09. Drabinski said he was impressed with Weidig, who made his first collegiate appearance.
On Sunday morning, the Bears hoped to sweep the Owls to leave Georgia with a .500 record, but errors undid them again. This time, eight errors led to six unearned runs as the Owls won 11-6. Brown led 3-2 in the bottom of the first after a bases-loaded walk and a two-run throwing error, but the Owls took the lead by scoring four runs over the next five innings. In the bottom of the fifth, the Bears cut the lead to one after an error and a fielder's choice led to two runs, but that would be the closest that Brown would get as KSU pulled away with five runs in the eighth and ninth innings. In his first start of the year Dietz, who was named the Ivy League Preseason Pitcher of the Year by Collegiate Baseball, gave up two earned runs in five innings.
Drabinski said the players "were disappointed in the way they played" on Sunday, especially after playing so well on Saturday night.
Though he didn't like the outcome of the weekend, Drabinski said he liked what he saw from his team's offense, which had 45 hits, and pitchers, which he calls one of the "deepest pitching staffs" he's worked with in his 11 years at Brown. Drabinski said he and his coaching staff have "high expectations" for the team, which Collegiate Baseball predicted would finish second in the Red Rolfe Division, behind Harvard. Drabinski believes his team can win the Ivy League title, a sentiment his players share.
"This is the best team I've played on," Dietz said. "We just have to fix a couple of things. If we just play defense, there's nobody in the country we can't take the field against."
The team will focus on defense this week, Drabinski said, as team prepares to head south again, this time to face No. 4 University of South Carolina (10-1) over the weekend. The Bears will begin Ivy League play on March 31 at Princeton.
