Falcons Travel To Banana Belt Tournament
2/27/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Feb. 27, 2007
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Air Force vs. Gonzaga, LCSC, WSU & UTVS at `07 Banana Belt Tourney
Dates: March 1 vs. Gonzaga; March 2 vs. Lewis & Clark & Wash. St.; March 3 vs. Utah Valley State
Sites: Lewiston, Idaho & Pullman, Wash. for Washington State game
Live Stats: Gametracker
The Coaches:
Mike Hutcheon is 29-138 in his 4th year at Air Force and 268-273 in his 13th year as a head coach
Mark Machtolf is 86-85 in his fourth year at Gonzaga
Ed Cheff is 1,510-398-2 in his 32nd year at Lewis and Clark
Donnie Marbut is 60-63 in his third year at WSU
Steve Gardner is 431-371 in his 17th year at UTVS
Series Histories: AFA meets Gonzaga and WSU for first time ever - LCSC leads vs. AFA 3-0 and AFA leads vs. UTVS 3-2
Pitching Probables W-L ERA G-GS IP K BB3/1 Gonzaga Josh Monroe - Sr. RHP 0-0 1.59 4-1 5.2 4 5 AFA Alex Truesdale - Fr. RHP 0-0 4.66 4-4 9.2 11 33/2 LCSC TBA AFA Gary Whiteman - Fr. RHP 1-2 10.61 4-4 18.2 10 123/2 WSU TBA AFA Jake Petro - So. RHP 2-1 3.38 4-4 16.0 5 113/3 UTVS Jace Brinkerhoff - RHP AFA Mitch Brown - Sr. RHP 1-2 3.54 4-3 20.1 13 3
Falcons Travel To Banana Belt Tournament
Air Force (4-7) travels to Lewiston, Idaho, to take part in the S.P.O.R.T. Banana Belt Tournament from March 1-3. The Falcons take on Gonzaga, tourney host Lewis & Clark State, Washington State (in Pullman, Wash.) and Utah Valley State. Live stats will be available via gametracker.
The Last Time Out
Air Force went 0-3 at the 2007 Service Academies Spring Classic in Millington, Tenn., last weekend. The Falcons lost to Navy 7-1 and 7-5 on Friday and fellt to Akron 6-1 on Sunday.
The 2007 Falcons
Air Force enters the Banana Belt Tournament with a 4-7 record. The Falcons are batting .296 as a team, the second best hitting team in the Mountain West Conference. Sophomore Jason Griggs leads the team with a .417 batting average and leads the MWC with eight stolen bases. The Falcon pitching staff has a 6.44 staff earned run average. Senior Mitch Brown anchors the staff with a 1-2 record in three starts this year. Brown leads the Falcons with 20.1 innings pitched, to go with 13 strikeouts and a 3.54 ERA. Air Force is fielding .954 as a team, ranking fourth in the conference.
The 2006 Falcons
Air Force went 10-38 in 2006 and 1-21 in Mountain West Conference play, finishing seventh in the conference. The team's leading hitter was team MVP Karl Bolt, who led the team in nearly every statistical category, batting .314 with nine home runs and 30 RBI. AFA's top pitcher was Mitch Brown. Brown led the team in nearly every pitching category, going 3-10 with 51 strikeouts in 71.2 innings and posted a 5.65 earned run average.
Scouting The Opponents
Gonzaga enters the weekend with a 5-8 record after going 3-1 at the Dallas Baptist Tournament in Arlington, Texas, over the weekend. The Zags are batting .241 as a team, led by sophomore first baseman Ryan Wiegand, who is batting .333 with a pair of home runs to go with 12 RBI. The Gonzaga pitching staff has a 6.73 staff ERA. The Falcons are slated to see senior right-hander Josh Monroe, who has a 1.59 ERA in four appearances, which includes one start.
Lewis & Clark State enters the weekend with a perfect 9-0 record. The Warriors are one of the most storied NAIA baseball programs ever, having won 14 national titles, including five titles since 1999. LCSC is batting .329 as a team. Junior third baseman Beau Mills, a transfer from Fresno State, leads the team with a .500 batting average to go with four home runs and 19 RBI. The Warriors have a staff ERA of 1.82. Junior right-hander Chris Kissock leads the team with a 2-0 record and 0.69 ERA in 13 innings pitched.
Washington State, whom the Falcons will play in Pullman, Wash., Friday night, enter the tournament with a 3-3 record after going 1-2 at Texas over the weekend. The Cougars are batting .291 as a team. Freshman shortstop Josh Ashenbrenner leads the team with a .462 batting average to go with four runs on the season. The WSU staff ERA is 5.82. Senior right-hander Wayne Daman Jr. has been the Cougar's best starter so far with a 3.60 ERA in one start.
Utah Valley State enters the weekend with a 2-6 record after going 2-1 at Southern Utah over the weekend. The Wolverines are batting .216 as a team. Senior shortstop Eli Slesk leads the team with a .375 batting average to go with four runs. The UTVS pitching staff has a 5.73 ERA. Freshman right-hander Jace Brinkerhoff is slated to get the start against Air Force. Brinkerhoff is 0-2 with a 5.54 ERA and 14 strikeouts in 13 innings so far this year.
Series History vs. Opponents
- Air Force takes on Gonzaga and Washington State for the first time ever. - Zach McAngus was a freshman All-American at Air Force in 2003 before transferring to Washington State. - Air Force is 0-3 all-time vs. Lewis & Clark State. The Falcons first played LCSC in 1982. The two teams last met in Hawai'i in 2003, where the Warriors took both games. - Air Force is 2-3 all-time against Utah Valley State. The two teams started playing each other in 2005. Last year the Falcons took two of three games at UTVS.
Falcons Aggressive On The Basepaths
Air Force is averaging 2.8 stolen bases per game, the tops in the MWC. The Falcons have stolen 31 bases in 41 attempts, good for a 75.6 percent success rate. In the Northern Colorado series, the Falcons were a perfect 11-for-11 in stolen base attempts. In the first game of the series against Kansas Wesleyan, the Falcons swiped seven bases. Seven Falcons already have multiple swipes and six have three or more. Jason Griggs currently leads the Mountain West Conference with eight steals in nine attempts.
Falcons Amongst MWC Leaders
As a team Air Force leads the MWC in two categories:
- Slugging Percentage (.446)
- Stolen Bases (31)
Three Falcons are amongst the individual leaders as well:
- Home runs - Karl Bolt (3)
- Fielding Percentage - Karl Bolt (1.000)
- Stolen bases - Jason Griggs (8)
- Hit Batters - Gary Whiteman (9)
Freshmen Making Immediate Impact
Featuring one of the youngest, if not the youngest, team in the nation, Air Force is relying heavily on its freshman class so far in 2007. Through the first 11 games of the season, the Falcons have started five freshmen eight times and started six twice. In the Akron game, the Falcons went with seven freshmen in the starting lineup. Freshmen Matt Alexander (CF), Ben Ausbun (3B), and K.J. Randhawa (SS) have started in every game for the Falcons. Gary Whiteman (RHP) has started four games on the mound and Alex Truesdale (RHP) leads the Falcon relievers with 11 strikeouts in 9.2 innings pitched.
Ausbun Named To All-Tournament Team
Freshman third baseman Ben Ausbun was named to the 2007 Service Academies Spring Classic All-Tournament team. The Puyallup, Wash., native batted .455 in the three games (5-for-11), scoring two runs and driving in one. Ausbun had three hits combined in the two games against Navy and also had a pair of hits against Akron. Ausbun has raised his batting average 151 points in his last six games from a low of .105 to his current average of .256.
Rare Two-Site Doubleheader
The Falcons will play a rare two-site doubleheader next Friday, March 2. The Falcons will take on Lewis & Clark State in Lewiston, Idaho at 2 p.m. on Friday and then travel up the road to Pullman, Wash., to take on Washington State at 7 p.m. The Falcons were originally slated to play WSU on Sunday, but made the schedule change to accomodate Sunday travel plans. This is the second two-site doubleheader the Falcons will be involved in as the team played Navy in Millington and then Memphis, Tenn. on the same day last Friday, Feb. 23.
Hitting/Offense Notes
• The Falcons batted .174 at the Service Academies Spring Classic. • Freshman Ben Ausbun has been the Falcons' top hitter in their last five games, batting .438 (7-for-16) over that clip. • Jason Griggs had his 11 game hitting streak snapped with a 0-for-5 performance in game two against Navy. • With his third home run of the season vs. Kansas Wesleyan, Karl Bolt has 28 career home runs, ranking him 13th all-time at the Academy. • The Falcons were 6-for-8 in stolen base attempts over the weekend.
Pitching Notes
• Air Force had a 5.19 ERA at the Service Academies Spring Classic. • Mitch Brown pitched a season-high 8.1 innings in the loss to Navy. • Jake Petro held Akron to one unearned run in 6.1 innings pitched. Petro has allowed just two earned runs over 11.1 innings in his last two starts for a paltry 1.59 ERA. • Reliever Michael Ruvolo made two appearances last weekend and did not allow a run. Ruvolo has not been scored upon in four of his five relief outings.
Defensive Notes
• The Falcons fielded .929 at the Service Academies Spring Classic, committing nine errors. • The Falcons had their worst fielding day of the season against Akron, committing five errors, all in the last four innings. • First baseman Karl Bolt is errorless in 81 chances and is sixth in the conference with 75 putouts. • Freshmen Ben Ausbun and K.J. Randhawa are tied for third in the conference with 35 assists. • In his debut as a catcher, Jason Griggs threw out both runners attempting to steal on him against Akron.
Additional Notes
• The Falcons 5-4 win against Kansas Wesleyan took just one hour and 18 minutes to play. The Falcons played the doubleheader that day (14 innings total) in a combined three hours and 26 minutes. • The three game series sweep of Kansas Wesleyan was the Falcons' first in four years. The Falcons last swept a three-game series against Hastings College in 2003. • The Falcons stole seven bases against Kansas Wesleyan in the first game of the series.
Recapping the Service Academies Series
Behind the strong pitching of junior right-hander Mitch Harris, Navy coasted to a 7-1 win over Air Force Friday morning at the 2007 Service Academies Spring Baseball Classic at USA Stadium.
Navy broke open a 1-1 tie ballgame with three runs in the fifth and two more in the seventh to pull away. Harris improved to 3-0 on the season, holding the Falcons to just one on three hits while striking out eight in 7.2 innings of work.
Falcon starter Gary Whiteman took the loss, falling to 1-2 on the season. Whiteman left the game with one out in the fifth inning after walking the bases loaded to allow the go-ahead run. Whiteman ended up charged for four runs on five hits while striking out a career-best four batters.
Freshmen Ben Ausbun and Addison Gentry and sophomore Jason Griggs had the three base hits for the Falcons. Ausbun singled and later scored on Gentry's double in the fourth inning. The run was Harris' first earned run allowed on the season and snapped a string of 27 innings, dating back to 2006, without allowing an earned run.
Griggs extended his hitting streak to 11games with his single in the eighth inning.
Navy had nine hits in the win with Harris going 3-for-4 and two runs. Mids' shortstop Kendall Bolt, brother of Falcon first baseman Karl Bolt, scored the go ahead run for Navy in the fifth.
In game two, Air Force's late rally came up just short, as Navy held the Falcons off for a 7-5 win Friday afternoon at Nat Buring Stadium. The win gave the Midshipmen a double-site doubleheader sweep over the Falcons as Navy took game one earlier in the day, 7-1, at USA Stadium in Millington, Tenn.
The Falcons and Mids battled back-and-forth early in the game until Navy went ahead for good on a two-run home run by Mitch Harris in the fifth inning. The loss spoiled a gutsy effort by Falcon starter Mitch Brown. Brown (1-2) took the loss, despite tossing 8.1 innings and striking out five. He allowed seven runs, five earned, off of eight hits and two walks.
Navy starter Mike White improved to 3-0 on the season. The right-hander went 6.1 innings, striking out five. Closer J.D. Melton went the remaining 2.2 innings for the save.
The Mids had eight hits in the game and were led, for the second game in a row, by Harris. The Falcons had seven hits in the game, led by freshmen Ben Ausbun and Matt Alexander, who both went 2-for-4.
After Navy scored a run in the top of the first, the Falcons responded with a run in the first and one more in the second to pull ahead 2-1 early on.
Navy came back with two runs in the fourth to go back ahead 3-2 but the Falcons responded with a run in the bottom of the fourth to make it a 3-3 tie.
After Harris' homer in the fifth, Navy added a run in the seventh. Air Force then pushed across two runs in the bottom of the eighth to make it a 6-5 game. Karl Bolt and Alexander hit back-to-back doubles to score Bolt for the first run and Addison Gentry came through with a two-out RBI-single to score Alexander.
Navy scored an insurance run in the eighth to go ahead 7-5.
The Falcons made things interesting in the ninth, getting two base runners on with one out. But Melton got the next two batters out to end the game.
In game three, defensive miscues and stagnant hitting led to Air Force dropping a 6-1 baseball contest to Akron (2-1) Sunday morning at the 2007 Service Academies Spring Classic at USA Stadium. The Falcons went 0-3 at the tournament and fall to 4-7 on the season.
The loss spoiled another stellar pitching effort, this time from Falcon starter Jake Petro. Petro turned in one of his best performances ever as a Falcon, holding Akron to one unearned run in 6.1 innings of work on five hits.
With cold, windy and wet weather, the Falcons struggled defensively, committing a season-high five errors, all coming in the last four innings.
With the game tied at 1-1 after seven innings, Akron broke the game open by scoring three runs in the eighth--two off of back-to-back wild pitches and an infield single.
The Falcons were held to six hits in the game. Karl Bolt and Ben Ausbun both had two hits for the Falcons. David Miller took the loss in relief for the Falcons, allowing three runs in two-third of an inning's work.
Akron scored the first run of the game in the seventh inning. Ryan Frazee drew a one out walk and then reached second on a fielding error. Frazee then came around to score on Phil Bednar's two-out single up the middle.
Air Force responed with a run in the bottom of the inning. Ben Ausbun singled to lead off the inning and came around to score on Shea Hall's ground out.
Akrton added two more runs in the ninth off two hits and an error to make it a 6-1 game. The Zips had 11 hits in the game, led by Kurt Davidson, who went 3-for-4 with an RBI.
Akron starter Steven Zemanek earned the win, allowing one run on six hits, while striking out four in seven innings pitched.
Up Next
The Falcons return home to play host to Wright State for a four game set over the weekend of March 9-11. The Falcons take on the Raiders on Friday at 2 p.m. The two team play a doubleheader on Saturday beginninng at noon and a final game on Sunday at noon.
Season Standing Notes
• Bolt Brothers Battle In Millington - When Air Force took on Navy at the Service Academies Springs Classic at USA Stadium in Millington, Tenn., brothers Karl and Kendall Bolt faced each other for the first time. Karl, a senior outfielder at Air Force and Kendall, a freshman shortstop at Navy, are both products of Lincoln HS in Stockton, Calif. Kendall got the better of the brothers, as Navy took both games of the series with Kendall scoring the go-ahead run in the first game.
• Falcon Brotherhood - Falcon sophomore right-hander Jake Petro is the second Petro to play for the Falcons. Older brother, Dan Petro, played for the Falcons from 2000-03 and was an all-conference catcher in `03.
• Falcon Brotherhood part II - Brent and Gary Whiteman are the latest brother combo to play for Air Force. The last Falcon brother duo to play for Air Force were Derck and Dale Kasel in 2003. Both brothers enter the Academy as freshmen but Gary will be a sophomore in terms of eligibility after playing his freshman year at Scottsdale Community College in Arizona in 2005.
• Falcons Tabbed 7th in MWC Preseason Poll -The Air Force Falcon baseball team was tabbed to finish seventh in the Mountain West Conference as voted by the seven head coaches and select media. TCU, the defending conference champion, was selected to finish first, followed by San Diego State in second and BYU in third. UNLV followed up in fourth, New Mexico in fifth and Utah in sixth.
• Closing in on 500 - The Falcons are two wins away from 500 wins all-time at Falcon Field. Air Force is 498-369 all-time at Falcon Field.
• Finally, some lefties - After several years of just having one or two left-handers on the team, Air Force features eight players that can either hit or throw from the left side. Five batters and three pitchers hit and throw from the odd side and will give Mike Hutcheon some strategic possibilities.
