By RYAN WALKER
The Bluffton baseball team continued to pour it on offensively, slugging its way to a 19-5 victory over Canterbury on Wednesday.
The Tigers, now 7-2 on the season, complied 15 hits together, three of them going for extra bases. Two of the doubles came from senior Drew Pressler, who went three-for-four and drove in five runs while scoring four himself.
“I just stayed back and didn’t try to do too much with it and put it in play,” said Pressler, who will be heading to Manchester University next fall for baseball.
Bluffton’s runs per game are up from 6.3 to 10.8 (though it’s only been nine games), but so far is showing the team has taken a big step offensively.
Last year, the Tigers were a .500 club at 13-13. Head coach Jason Pierce said that the biggest difference from last season to this season had been the experience. He has more than half his lineup that has been into the fire on the varsity squad, learning from bumps in the road and has been a culmination of years of hard work.
He still keeps the same goal in mind: taking games and practicing one step at a time, and getting better every day.
“Offensively, we’re as good as anybody,” Pierce said. “We’ve just got to keep the mentality of working on our one percent. Our number one goal is to get on base, and if we get on base, we work station to station, and we’re doing a really good job of doing that.”
Senior shortstop Andrew Onuegbu walked for the Tigers’ first plate appearance of the game, then swiped second, and later scored on a throw down to third, attempting another steal. That’s when the bats started to roll.
Pressler got his first hit on an RBI single, and Griffin Morgan drove in two more with a sharp single to right field.
By the second inning, it was already 8-0 Bluffton. Pressler drove in another run along with Onuegbu’s two RBI single.
Starting pitcher Eli Garrett threw in his first game since week one, striking out five in the first two innings back on the bump. He went three total innings, getting the win, and allowed just a two-run home run by Reed Hayes in the third inning. He struck out seven total Cavaliers.
In the third, Pressler got the scoring started again with a double to bring home two. Nick Pastore and Morgan each had a hit to score two more.
Braxton Betancourt, Pressler again, and Lukas Gehrett all tallied RBIs in the fourth to round out the hit parade as the game ended in a five-inning mercy rule.
Betancourt, Morgan, Pastore, Gehrett, and Onuegbu ended up with two hits in the game.
Pressler got a one-two-three inning, striking out the side in the fifth.
Pierce said the team’s approach to the plate had helped the offense as well. The Tigers drew six walks in the game, being more pitch selective and driving the ball when it’s in the strike zone.
“We still are doing a good job offensively not forcing swings,” he said. “We’re still taking our walks when our pitches aren’t in our wheelhouse, and we’re attacking strikes.”
Bluffton plays in its first conference game on the road to South Adams at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 19.
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