Oiler baseball finishes 2-8 in Florida

By Alyssa Grevenkamp

@Gbabyy20

While many of us spent spring break in the frigid cold, knee-deep in snow, the baseball team got to head down to sunny Florida to kick off their season.

But it wasn’t all sunshine on this trip for the Oilers. They had a rocky start to their season going 2-8 overall.

The first set of games were on March 1 and the Oilers split with Gannon in a double header. The first game the Oilers dropped 1-0 but the second game they pulled out a win, 4-3.

In second game against Gannon, the Knights took a quick lead in the top of the first, but the Oilers weren’t going to go down without a fight. Chase Goulette started a rally in the bottom of the fifth with a single. Goulette advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. With one away, Roman Kuster came up big with a double and Goulette scored tying the game at 3-3.

Merriman then came to the plate and singled to center field to score Kuster to put the Oilers up 4-3. These four runs were enough for the Oilers to get their first win of the season. Mason Mayberry would get the win and Alex Williams would get the save.

Findlay then dropped back-to-back games. One game to Ashland and one game to Wheeling Jesuit.

The Oilers sought revenge on the Cardinals in game two, though.

Findlay got off to a quick start and scored in the first inning thanks to Chase Goulette’s double to right center. In the third inning, Evan Hollar scored on a wild pitch to take a 2-0 lead.

Later, in the top of the sixth, the Oilers gained a little more assurance as John Shollenberge scored on Goulette’s ground out to second base. The Oilers would won the game 3-0. Austin Rodesky got the win for the Oilers.

Findlay lost a few heartbreakers on the trip, though. Two of them being to Evangel 3-1 and 3-2. The Oilers had good outings from pitchers Colin Gossard and Austin Rodesky in those games.

The rest of the trip didn’t meet the Oilers expectations. They closed the trip on a five game losing streak.

The Oilers will be back in action against Dominican on Friday in North Carolina for a double header at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.