Daniel Allsup
The Paw Print
Friday, March 15 was a historic day for Adams State University Baseball. The Grizzlies played their first home game of their season against CSU-Pueblo after a 36-year baseball drought at ASU. Drew Wells sealed the day with a climatic pinch-hit, walk-off, three-run blast, giving ASU a 6-5 victory.
Wells explains his dramatic at-bat, “I had come up in pinch-hit situations earlier this season and didn’t deliver how I wanted to; I took the first pitch and was expecting to see the same pitch the next time. Instead, he threw it down the middle inside, and I was able to get my hands and hips through.” Head Coach Jim Capra adds, “It’s a great win for the school, for the program, but most importantly for our kids.”
For the weekend, that was the only win the Grizzlies could wrestle. ASU only mustered two runs in the final three games of the weekend series, losing 0-7, 1-4, and 1-13. The 2013 baseball season has the Grizzlies at a 3-17 record for the season and a 2-8 record in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
Leading the way so far in the inaugural season on offense is a trio of hitters, Jaron Dorchinez, Drew Wold and D.J. Knott. Dorchinez, a shortstop and junior from Englewood, Colo., has a team leading batting average and slugging percentage, 358 and .509 respectively. Dorchinez shares the team lead in runs scored with Wold, an outfielder and junior from Aurora, Colo.
Wold is a catalyst for the ASU offense, starting in all 20 games thus far. Wold sports a .304 batting average, and leads the Grizzlies in hits and walks. First basemen Knott is a freshman from Windsor, Colo., and is hitting .292 for the year, leading the Grizzlies with two home-runs, eleven runs batted in, and 31 total bases.
Junior Kyle Sedlack from Colorado Springs is the team’s workhorse thus far, with 28 1/3 innings pitched. Sedlack has made five starts and has a 6.04 earned run average for the season, and has struck out a total of 14 opponents. Sedlack has a 1-3 record. Sophomore Thom Aramovich from Evergreen, Colo. has also made five starts this season. Aramovich is 0-5 on the season and has an 11. 37 earned run average. Other starting pitchers are freshman Ryker English from Fort Collins and junior Jeffrey Schmitt from Cheyenne, Wy. English and Schmitt both started four games and have ERA’s of 11.57 in 18 1/3 innings pitched.
In spite of only having two wins in the conference, the Grizzlies are still in position to grab a RMAC playoff spot. Colorado Christian is 1-9 in RMAC play; Colorado Mines and Metro State are tied at 3-7 in the RMAC. ASU will play against Colorado Mines and Metro State in April.
The Grizzlies get to make a play-off push against CCU this weekend, with two double headers on Friday and Saturday. Game times are at noon and 3pm both days.
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