CARY, N.C. - Game One: The first day of March provided yet another picturesque day for baseball. There was not a single cloud in the sky when Senior Jack McIntosh threw the first pitch right at 1:00. The sunshine seemed symbolic as the Pacers felt primed and ready for another opportunity to get into the win column.
The first two innings felt like professional chess. There were 9 years of collegiate baseball experience between the two pitchers, and neither one wanted to give an inch. Unfortunately for the Pacers, Muskingum catcher Benny Hess had a plan to change the slow offensive start.
Hess attacked a first-pitch fastball in the top of the 3rd, clobbering it into the Cary afternoon. The home run only being of the solo variety, the damage felt minimal. McIntosh quickly bounced back, retiring the next 8 Muskie batters, and the blemish on the scoreboard had seemingly been forgotten.
Pacer Catcher, Alex Levesque, called Hess's first pitch home run with a first pitch missile of his own in the 4th, this one barely staying in the ballpark. Levesque would cruise into 3rd with a triple, getting scored just one batter later by an Ian Turner RBI groundout.
A quiet 5th for both squads gave way to a hectic top of the 6th. Pacer relievers would either walk, or hit, 6 straight Muskie hitters, essentially giving the visitors from Ohio 5 free runs.
The Pacers would string up a few hits in the 6th and 7th, but would fail to push any base runner across the plate. A 2-RBI single by Grant Mellerson compounded the momentum for the Muskies and provided Peace with quite the mountain to climb.
The Pacers needed a 9 run rally against Muskingum pitcher Erik Cover who had thrown 8 incredibly efficient innings to that point. The first two Peace batters reached one back to back pitches.
However, an untimely double play hurt the Pacer rally chances. Kyle Peters did drive in his former high school teammate Ian Turner with a single, but that was where the rally ended. The Pacers fell to Muskingum in game one of the double header, 9-2.
Game Two:
In Game two, the Pacers went from having 4 years of collegiate experience on the mound, to 2 games of collegiate experience on the mound as Freshman Alejandro Posluszny took the ball.
Posluszny looked polished in his second collegiate outing, and began game two of the double header the same way. Despite surrendering a leadoff triple, Posluszny only gave up one run to the Muskies, displaying a mature next pitch mentality.
The Pacers bats went quietly in the first 2 frames, getting sat down in order on both trips. Muskingum capitalized on the slow Pacer start, dinking and dunking their way into two more runs in the top of the 3rd.
An all-around quiet fourth inning was in stark contrast to the next two plate appearances for the Muskies, as they would add 8 combined runs; 3 in the 5th, and 5 in the 6th.
While the Muskie bats were red hot, the Pacers could not find any answers offensively, only managing one hit in innings 2-6. Another Muskie run in the 7th forced head Coach Charlie Long into a mass substitution. Many young Pacers were able to experience in-game collegiate action and capitalize on the opportunity. With a completely restructured lineup, Peace scored three runs across the 8th and 9th, providing the Pacers faithful with some much needed joy.
Winning at a high level is what makes collegiate sports increasingly fun, however, not everybody has the luxury of that constant experience every year. This means that joy must come in different varieties and ought not be swallowed up by nerves and anxiety. Most everybody is familiar with the old "chicken or the egg" adage. Well, why not turn it into an analogy of sport: what came first, the winning or the joy?
