Saint Anselm’s baseball team finished stronger than they started as they traveled during spring break to Florida. The Hawks began very slow, losing four out of their first five games. They proceeded to win their last two games, 9-8 and 4-2. The Hawks have had an up and down start to their season with a 6-7 record. Saint Anselm has had issues of limiting their opponents’ ability to score runs. In the four-game losing streak, the Hawks rotation gave up a combined 43 runs. In order for the Hawks to make a deep run in the NE-10 championship, their pitching needs to improve. In only six of the Hawks games this season, they have given up less than three runs. That being said, the Hawks did put runs on the board against many teams in the trip to Florida, scoring more than four runs in eight of their games. The Hawks have been a good offensive team to start off the year.

Saint Anselm has down well to put runners on base, particularly from the Hawk outfield. They have been led by junior outfielder Oscar Larranga, who has been crushing the ball of late, batting .286 with four doubles, one triple and eight RBI’s. The other outfielder, who leads the team in batting average with a .326 average, is junior Connor Parent who has been a tough bat for opposing pitchers. He has totaled 15 hits, a double, a triple, eight RBI’s, and three stolen bases. Junior infielder Tyler Mckeon has provided one of the home runs of the season so far. He also collected 11 hits, eight RBI’s and a .268 batting average. The junior members of the team look to be stepping up this year for the Hawks.  

The Hawks collected a 4-2 win in the last game of the trip to Florida against West Virginia Wesleyan on Saturday, March 10th. The Hawks went down early in the first inning after Greg Smith scored for Wesleyan on an error by the infield. The Hawks responded in the bottom of the second after sophomore first baseman Paul McGunigle ripped a double to bring in junior catcher Colin Rios. The Hawks only gave up one more run in the fourth inning. The Hawks grabbed one run in the bottom of the fifth and another in the bottom of the seventh.

Freshman Will Conaton started the game for the Hawks on the mound and got pulled only 1.2 innings into the game. He gave up three hits, one run, and two walks. The Hawks then brought in senior Adam Krol, who pitched a clinic going seven and a third innings, giving up four hits, one earned run, three walks, while striking out eight. The Hawks played one of their best games on the year so far, due to the fact that their pitching showed up that day.

Freshman catcher for the Hawks, Ben Horsefall had this to say when asked about the road trip, “I thought it was pretty good. We played well but definitely could have played better. We went 3-4 but we had opportunities in every game. Our offense has played really well and we showed we have good depth in our line up.”

The Hawks offense did their part and they hope to continue their win streak against Le Moyne this Saturday, the 24th, for a doubleheader.