After a tough weekend in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, with a 1-3 loss, Bulldog baseball had a better outing last weekend against Missouri Southern State University. The ‘Dogs won the Sunday portion of the four-game weekend series, 9-8 and 15-11, but lost the first two games on Saturday against Missouri Southern. During the first game the ‘Dogs were held to just two hits, falling 1-7, but found their bats in the second game with 13 hits, resulting in an unusually high scoring loss at 12-15.
On Sunday, the ‘Dogs got down to business and won both games, the first one coming after extra innings. During the second game of the day, the ‘Dogs had 15 RBIs, 10 of them from the bats of junior Brendan Trimble and senior Dave Gambino. Trimble says after losing the first two games, the ‘Dogs knew they had to come with a different mindset, ready to play and jump ahead early. In the first game, the ‘Dogs saw runners cross home plate in 6 out of the 8 innings. After narrowly escaping game one Sunday with an extra inning and a 9-8 victory, Trimble says he thinks the team, especially the pitching staff, found confidence by scoring runs early in game two and bombarding their opponents with high powered offense to relieve some pressure later in the game.
Gambino says he is extremely optimistic for this season. He says this weekend gave the team a great idea of what to work on to get ready for the home opener March 4 against University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
“I think I can speak for the team in saying that we are all excited to play on our turf,” Gambino says. “It should be fun baseball to watch.”
The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association recently named Gambino a preseason all-region selection after a second-team all-GLVC pick last season.