Baseball gets back on track with two big wins

Zach Meyer
Sports Editor
April 15, 2004, Page 6

The Tiger baseball team took advantage of fair weather and a slight breeze to win two games last night over Johnson & Wales University.
Doane started slow in the first game, but relied on home runs from junior Eric Fuehrer and freshman Mitch Vernon to finally shut down the Wildcats 9-2. The second game wasn’t even a contest as the Tigers blew out Johnson & Wales 17-0 in just five innings. Vernon added another home run in this contest, as did senior Brett Wobken.
Even though the games were not conference match ups, head coach Jack Hudkins felt the games had a lot of value considering the team had lost three of its last four coming into the match.
“This should be a real confidence booster for us,” Hudkins said.
The big wins allowed for many players, including several freshman, to come off the bench and see valuable playing time.
“The young kids stepped up and did well,” Hudkins said. “Freshman Mitch Vernon had two home runs tonight.”
The wins improve the Tigers to 18-8 overall and they remain 5-5 in the conference. They are looking to improve their conference record to ensure their chances of making the eight team conference tournament at the end of the season.
“There is no weak team in this conference this year,” Hudkins said. “It’s wide open.”
Hudkins emphasized that the team needs, at the very least, to split the rest of its double headers this year.
“But we don’t want splits,” Hudkins said. “We want sweeps.”
The Tigers will get back into conference action this weekend as they host Morningside in a double header beginning at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
“When we hit the field, we just gotta be ready to play,” Hudkins said.