BSHS Baseball team drops first two games of the year

The Berkeley Springs High School baseball team opened its season last week with losses to Clear Spring and Martinsburg.

After having several games postponed because of weather, the Indians finally made its season debut on Monday, March 26, in Clear Spring, Md. Berkeley Springs was defeated by the Blazers 6-3, after jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the top half of the first inning.

The Indians held the lead until the bottom of the third, when Clear Spring scored three times to go on top 3-2. Berkeley Springs quickly tied the game with a single run in the fourth. But, Clear Spring answered with a run in the bottom of the inning for a 4-3 lead that they would never relinquish.

The Indians squandered several scoring opportunities and stranded eight runners on base, which caught the attention of second-year head coach Trey Barcus.

"We must do a better job with runners in scoring position," said Barcus. "We were 2-14 tonight with runners in scoring position as a team and that isn't getting the job done."

Michael Twigg started for Berkeley Springs and was charged with the loss. Twigg allowed three earned runs on six hits, striking out six, without a walk in four complete innings. Nick Campanelli and Jake Freels each pitched an inning. Campanelli allowed two runs on two hits, while Freels worked one scoreless inning allowing one hit and striking out one.

Freels led the seven-hit Indian attack with a single, a double, a run scored and a RBI. Campanelli, Jacob Waugh, Twigg, Joey Berens, Mark Carter and JT Thomas had the other Berkeley Springs hits. Waugh, Thomas and Twigg scored one run each.

Although the Indians collected seven hits, Barcus was not pleased with the offense. "We struck out nine times, three looking," Barcus said. "We must put the ball in play if we are going to have more success. One other thing that we must do as a team is throw more first-pitch strikes. We need to get ahead of the batters. When you are behind in the count, the advantage goes to the batter."

The following day Berkeley Springs hosted one of the top teams in the state, Martinsburg. The Bulldogs are ranked fifth in Class AAA and showed Berkeley Springs why they have such a lofty ranking by beating the Indians 15-3 in five innings.

"This will be one of the best teams we see all year," Barcus said. "We had to play a perfect game to give ourselves any chance and we didn't. In fact, we played anything but a perfect game."

Each team scored a run in the opening inning, before Martinsburg erupted for five runs in the top of the second for a 6-1 lead. The Indians responded with two runs in their half of the third to close the gap to 6-3. But, Martinsburg scored four runs in the fourth and five more in the fifth for the 15-3 victory.

"We made way too many mistakes tonight," said Barcus. "We should have been leading 3-0 after three innings, but instead we were down 6-3. We had some big third-out errors that really cost us."

Nathan Sirbaugh got the start on the mound and worked three innings, allowing 10 runs, seven earned, on nine hits. He struck out four and walked four. Freels worked the final two innings allowing five runs, three earned, on four hits. He walked one and struck out three.

The Indians managed three hits off the Bulldogs. Freels hit a one-run triple, with Waugh and Jeremy Michael collecting one hit each. Freels also scored a run and Waugh collected a RBI.

"We have to put this game behind us," Barcus said. "I don't think they understand how good they are capable of being. They have to develop a