Berg Bounces Back

Nathan James

Heidelberg bounced back yesterday and eliminated UW-Stevens Point by a score of 8-3.  Nathan James turned in his second consecutive strong start in a big spot.

The Berg survived and will take on Linfield on Memorial Day in another elimination game in Appleton.  

James’ performance is just the latest in what is quickly becoming a trend for the Student Princes.  Matt Palm’s staff has allowed 3 runs or fewer in each of their World Series games thus far.

Entering the Mideast regional the consensus seemed to be that if there was a question mark for the Berg it was the starting pitching.  Any time a freshman tops the rotation it’s certainly fair to be unsure of how the starting pitching will pan out.  

Brian Koehl helped calm some of the apprehension by throwing his best game of the year in the OAC championship game (CG shutout of Marietta) to continue his string of solid outings the last month of the regular season.  With Ethan Holt continuing his steady play things seemed a little more settled.  

Then Nathan James came through with arguably his best outing of the year against Marietta in the regional championship game.  All of a sudden the pitching seemed to be clicking much like the offense had been.  But this wasn’t the World Series.  This wasn’t Appleton.

A lot of credit still has to be given to Ethan Holt.  The freshman helped set the tone by throwing 6.1 shutout innings against #1 Johns Hopkins in the opener.  To their credit, his fellow pitchers have continued the run of strong starting pitching performances in Wisconsin.

Koehl allowed 3 runs in 6.1 IP against IWU.  Unfortunately, it was not enough and the Berg fell 4-3.  Facing elimination Nathan James (8-2) provided 7 strong innings (1 ER) before handing off to Sylvester Nino who secured his first save of the season.

The offense did their part by giving James a 3-0 lead to work with early on.  Elvin Williams and Ricky Lizcano each drove in a run with a base hit in the 3-run 2nd inning.  

The teams would trade single scores until the Berg broke it open with a 4-run 5th inning.  After Willie Brechun (single), Jason Lash (BB) and Alex Monroe (HBP) loaded the bases it was Andrew Buelow’s turn to get the big hit.  His single to center field plated a pair and opened up a 6-1 lead.  Ricky Lizcano added another RBI hit in the 5th.  He finished with a team high 4 base hits on the day.

Williams went 2-for-3 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored.  Brechun was the only other Student Prince to notch multiple hits (2).

The good news for the Berg is that they were able to put up some crooked numbers.  The better news is that their pitching continues to be very good.  Let’s hope they can keep up those trends today.

Everyone enjoy their Memorial Day.

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