COLUMN: Ben’s Thoughts: Semo Baseball Quarterly Report

As the Redhawks baseball team prepares to host SIU Edwardsville this Friday (March 25), it is a good time to recap the first 19 games of the season.

As the Redhawks continue to push through the tedious 56 game schedule, the first 19 games have been found to contain an explosion of offense courtesy of outfielder Jevon Mason and catcher Andrew Keck.

Redhawks players Brett Graber, Andrew Keck, Jevon Mason and Tyler Wilber have combined for 21 home runs and 89 runs batted in. These top four offensive crushers are also leading the team in batting average as each of them are batting over .300.

This team has been an offensive powerhouse up to this point, but the bullpen has also come in clutch through the first 19 games as well, with relievers such as Kyle Miller and Blake Cisneros. Kyle Miller holds a 3-1 record in seven appearances, while Cisneros has a 2-0 record in nine appearances.

The starting pitching for this squad has not been off to the best start as the relief staff has been picking up the slack for most of the games this season. The team ERA is a 6.31 with 171 strikeouts through 168.2 innings pitched collectively.

The movement on the base paths this season has been more active than most teams in the OVC as the Redhawks have stolen 33 bases in 39 attempts. That is one of the biggest keys to scoring runs and getting an extra jump throughout the later innings as this team has shown.

Something that goes hand in hand with activity on the bases is actually getting on base. The Redhawks have posted a .403 on base pct. and have proven that taking the free pass is the key to having a busy inning. This team collectively has been walked 122 times and have only let up 82 walks.

Although the 14-5 record has shown big strides for this Redhawks team, they have been on a bit of a skid in the past five games with a record of 4-5 while being outscored 43-19 in those games. In order to pick the pace back up, starting pitching will have to start getting more outs and going later into games.

In order to win games defense plays the biggest role of them all. The Redhawks have proven that late game defensive plays and consistency all around the field results in a win for most games that are played. The team has posted 505 putouts and 167 assists with just 23 errors resulting in a .967 fielding pct.

While defense does win championships, the thing that this team needs the most improvement out of is the starting pitching. Every team that wants to make a deep run into the playoffs needs good starting pitching that can make it deep into games in order for the team to win. The talent is there for the staff and that is one thing to pinpoint heading throughout the rest of the season.

The Redhawks look to bounce back when they take on the SIU Edwardsville Cougars on Friday, March 25. First pitch slated for 6p.m.