DC Swept on Day Four of RussMatt

Auburndale, Florida - The Delta College baseball team played six great innings of baseball on Thursday morning against the Baseball Academy of Canada.  Unfortunately, the game lasted seven innings.  A 3-0 DC lead was gone in the blink of an eye and turned in to a dissappointing, 5-3 loss as BAC scored all five runs with two outs to hand Delta it's second consecutive loss.  

"It's hard for me to continue to say, 'We're here to see what we're capable of' when we are putting the game in the hands of players where we already know what they are capable of," said sixth year coach Danny Smith.  "Sooner or later, you need to get rid of the reasons why you lose games and come up with the solution to fix it."

The Baseball Academy of Canada (CBA) is a training center that offers a high performance baseball program for elite players from eastern Canada aged 16-21. Incorporated in Montreal in 1990, the CBA was born thanks to the joint efforts of Baseball Canada, Baseball Québec and the Montreal Expos.

Delta took a 1-0 lead out of the gate as Zack Booth doubled and eventually scored on a balk.  Z Westley upped the lead to 2-0 in the the third as he scored on a Dean Marais double.  DC tacked on it's final run in the fifth courtesy of a walk, a stolen base, a groundout and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Marais to make it 3-0.

Meanwhile, starting pitcher Tyler Kirkwood was dealing on the hill as he mowed down the BAC hitters to the tune of nine strikeouts and three hits entering the seventh.  A leadoff single and walk put runners at first and second before Kirkwood would get a strikeout and a groundout to put runners at second and third with two outs.  Delta opted to use Ty Robbins as the top of the order came to the plate and pulled Kirkwood.

A walk loaded the bases and infield single scored two runners to make it 3-2.  Back to back wild pitches tied the game before another walk and double gave BAC the 5-3 lead.  Delta would not threaten in the seventh.

The day's second game saw the Pioneers face #11 St Cloud Tech Community College in a game that saw DC get shut out for the first time this year.  Ethan Lesperance took the loss on the hill, despite throwing well.  He went six innings, giving up three earned runs while striking out four.

Offensively, Delta was limited to seven hits, two of which came off the bat of Zack Booth.  Ty Robbins and Cheyne Maier each added a double while Z Westley had a single and stolen base.

"We played as well as we are capable of playing," said Smith.  "You can look at that how you want but I feel that we played our best game against St. Cloud, at this point in the season."

Delta next plays on Saturday against #3 Niagara Community College in a double-header that will end their spring trip tour.  First pitch is scheduled for 10am.

"Today's games were really to give us an idea as to whether we belong in the talk for a world series bid," said Smith.  "Saturday will give us an idea as to whether we are capable of winning a national championship."