CSR (Baseball Falls to Heidelberg in NCAA III Tourney)

From: Jeffrey Febus <jfebus@calvin.edu>
Date: Thu May 15 2008 - 21:46:50 EDT

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2008

BASEBALL
Heidelberg 4, Calvin 1
(written by Colin McWhertor ’08)

Terre Haute, IN – A rainy afternoon in Indiana was the site for Calvin’s
final game of the season Thursday as the Knights fell 4-1 to 12th-ranked
Heidelberg College at Art Nehf Field in the NCAA Mideast Regional.

Calvin was eliminated after dropping both of its games in the NCAA regional,
falling Wednesday evening to host school Rose Hulman. Calvin ends its best
season in school history with a record of 32-10 and the school’s fourth ever
NCAA appearance.

The Knights battled the top seed from Heidelberg (39-8) for much of the
afternoon, receiving a superb pitching performance from junior Kyle Cousins
(Holland Christian), who pitched into the eighth inning, allowing only two
runs.

Heidelberg jumped out in front 1-0 in the first, but Cousins limited the
damage by getting the first of four double-plays for the Calvin defense on the
day. The Knights battled back in the bottom of the second inning when junior
Chris Blacklidge (Comstock Park) doubled to lead of the inning and later scored
on a sacrifice fly to right by senior Alex Marcus (Willmar, MN).

Cousins (7-2) held Heidelberg until the sixth inning when the Student Princes
scratched across a run before Cousins induced yet another double-play to end
the threat.

Calvin threatened to tie or take the lead in the seventh inning after getting
runners on first and third with only one out, but the Knights were unable to
get a run in and Heidelberg ended the threat.

“We showed a lot of heart,” said senior captain Kyle Fletcher (Ft. Wayne,
IN). “We really stuck with the number one seed for a while. We were tied 1-1
for most of the game.”

“It’s been such a great season,” continued Fletcher, “I know we ended
on a low note but we were going up against the number one seed in the region
and I’m just proud of all the guys, we had a great season. It was a great
experience going up against great competition, I thought our pitchers did great
and even though we lost both of them we had a blast.”

Calvin collected six hits on the day, two by Blacklidge and two by senior
designated hitter Brad Brummel (South Christian). Sophomore Matt Schepel (GR
Christian) doubled for Calvin while Fletcher picked up a single.

Calvin is now 0-8 all time in NCAA play after reaching the tournament after a
six year absence since 2002.

Calvin’s first year head coach John Sparks had nothing but great things to
say about his team after being eliminated by Heidelberg.

“We played pretty well defensively and pitched pretty well again,” said
Sparks, “we just had trouble getting it going offensively two days in a row,
which hasn’t been a problem most of the year for us but down here it was.
Sometimes that happens but it doesn’t diminish what we’ve accomplished.”

Sparks continued to reflect on his first season as the Calvin coach.

“The season’s been exceptional,” said Sparks, “I’m just so proud of
the guys and what they’ve accomplished this season, arguably one of the
better baseball seasons in Calvin baseball history. It’s a great way for the
seniors to go out, to have this kind of success.”

Seven seniors finished their careers with Calvin. Fletcher, Marcus, and
Brummel joined pitchers Scott Larsen (Hastings) and Todd La Forest (Clio), who
pitcher in Wednesday’s game, outfielder Mike Stob (South Christian) and
catcher Pieter Groot (Uxbridge, MA), who was the designated hitter Wednesday.

Coach Sparks appreciated what all of his seniors contributed to the successful
season.

“The seven seniors, all of them, did a tremendous job” said Sparks.
“What was great about the senior class was that even the guys that were a
little more role players as far as far as playing time all worked hard from day
one to the last day and fulfilled those roles really well.”

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Thu May 15 21:48:26 2008

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