When the Augustana baseball team traveled to Colorado on Friday to play four games against the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) Orediggers, everyone expected the team to return with four wins.
However, the weekend turned out to be a big disappointment for the Vikings due to a combination of weather, high altitude and a bit of bad luck.
On Saturday, the team played its two scheduled games against CSM and lost both, 11-6 and 11-10.
Augustana led after the first inning of the first game, when junior Nate Baumann hit a leadoff double before advancing to third on a wild pitch. Another double by junior Derek Marks scored Baumann, and a single from junior Charlie Dubanoski gave the Vikings a 2-0 lead.
However, the Orediggers rallied back throughout the game, including scoring four runs in the fourth inning.
The Vikings tried to make up the deficit in the top of the seventh. Senior Dan Morrison led off and was hit by a pitch, then was driven in on Dubanoski's first homerun of the season. However, the team was not able to generate any more offense and fell to the Orediggers.
Game two was a shootout, and the Vikings got things going early, scoring one run in the top of the first before exploding with five runs in the top of the second. Freshman Nate Hewes scored on a single by sophomore Chris Ward. Baumann singled and then advanced to second on an error by the right fielder, allowing Ward to score. A single by junior Drew Heitoff scored Baumann, and a homerun by Marks gave Augustana a 6-0 lead.
But at the bottom of the second inning, the Orediggers closed in on the gap by scoring three runs, making the score 6-3, and Augustana gave up the lead in the bottom of the third, allowing the Orediggers to score five runs, making the score 8-6.
The Vikings took back their lead, putting together two scoring innings. Baumann scored in the fourth, and in the top of the fifth, junior Gates Cook was hit by a pitch, and freshman Chris Glynn subbed in to pinch run. A single by Hewes advanced Glynn to second, and both runners scored on a double by Baumann, giving Augustana a 9-8 lead.
Two errors by the Vikings in the bottom of the fifth allowed the Orediggers to re-tie the
game at 9-9. Marks stole home in the sixth inning, but a series of wild pitches allowed the Orediggers to tie the score at 10-10 in the bottom of the inning, and a sacrifice fly in the seventh gave the Orediggers the win.
And unfortunately for Augustana, the two losses against CSM on Saturday were not the end of the disappointment the team would face that weekend.
The Vikings were scheduled to play two more games against CSM on Sunday, but the games were cancelled on account of snow and the cold temperature.
Junior Kenny Lidke said the fact that the team was not able to come back and play against CSM on Sunday made the first two losses especially painful.
"We all hate to lose, and it really hurts when you can't complete the series the second day," Lidke said.
Senior Nick Lehnen felt that the games on Sunday would have been the team's chance to correct the mistakes made on Saturday.
"We really wanted to get back out on the field on Sunday and get some revenge, but we didn't get the opportunity," Lehnen said. "I think if we would've played Sunday we would've won both games."
The team entered Colorado with high hopes after a good week of practice, Lehnen said, but things didn't go as planned.
"We went with the intention of winning four games, and instead lost two," Lehnen said.
"We had a couple errors, and our pitching wasn't as good as we had hoped. It was an eye-opener for us to get ready for the rest of the season."
And to top it all off, as the team returned home, they faced a closed interstate due to snowfall and were forced to spend Sunday night in a McDonald's parking lot.
Junior Nick Seliski said the approximately 32 players on the bus were given a few options for the night.
"Some people chose to sleep in the lobby of the hotel nearby, some decided to get a room at the hotel, some stayed up all night at a restau- rant, and some slept on the bus," Seliski said. "I slept on the bus."
The team finally made it back to Sioux Falls around 2 p.m., on Monday, with a record of 1-3 for the season.
Next up for the Vikings is a trip to the Metro- dome in Minneapolis to face Nebraska-Kearney in a doubleheader. The first pitch of the first game is scheduled for 7 p.m. tomorrow. Teammates congratulate each other after a game last spring at Ronken Field. This past weekend, the team lost their first two games and were unable to play their final two games because of bad weather.
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