— By Bill Cornwell
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Marshall baseball spent the first two weeks of the regular season on the road. After defeating Evansville twice to start the year, the Herd have dropped five straight, including an 11-7 loss on Monday to Winthrop.
Marshall coach Greg Beals is hopeful Jack Cook Field can help change his team’s fortunes starting with Friday’s home opener against Butler at 3 p.m.
“That’s exactly what we need,” Beals said. “We need the friendly confines of our own ballpark, our locker room and our batting cages — everything that Jack Cook Field and the Alex Lawrence Clubhouse bring to us. We need that right now and hopeful that the shot in the arm gets us going in the right direction.”
Marshall was in South Carolina last weekend and dropped a pair of games at The Citadel, before falling to Navy 8-1 on Sunday in Columbia, S.C.
The Bulldogs, members of the Big East Conference, bring a 2-6 record with four straight setbacks to Huntington. The two teams will meet gain at 4 p.m. Saturday and for the series finale at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Butler was swept by Murray State in a three-game set last weekend and scored only six runs in the process.
Butler has defeated UT Martin and Illinois thus far this season, scoring 10 runs on both occasions.
Beals wants to see his team put together more complete performances and maintain an aggressive mindset, which he believes it’s too often failed to do early on.
“We’ve got a broken record going right now where we come out and put ourselves in positions to have success. We have a lead and we just can’t put games away,” Beals said. “We started out winning and then we got afraid of losing. Teams can’t play with a fear of losing. We’ve got to find a way to make the play when it matters, make the pitch when it matters, get the hit when it matters.”
Outfielder Evan Bottone is leading Marshall in batting average at .542 across 24 at bats. Bottone has collected three home runs, nine RBIs and a triple.
Other significant offensive contributors have been outfielder Ethan Murdoch (.318 avg., 2 HR), Tyler Kamerer (3 doubles) and Cooper Hinson and Jackson Halter, who have a pair of home runs each.
Pitchers Bryce Blevins Blaine Albright each have a win this season.
Blevins has 15 strikeouts in his two starts and a miniscule 2.08 earned-run average.
After the Butler series, Marshall at Virginia Tech on Tuesday, then returns home for a weekend series against St. Bonaventure.