Doane Baseball starts the season with a perfect 4-0 record after visiting Columbus, Missouri.
The Tigers started their season against Columbia College on Feb. 9 and came into the game swinging.
After a scoreless first, Doane struck first off the back of a solo home run from junior Aaron Vulcano, which was immediately followed by another solo home run from junior Justin Nevells. The Tigers’ bats stayed hot with four more runs in the third inning, courtesy of Nevells hitting a bases-clearing triple and coming in to score on an error for a 6-0 lead.
Columbia moved to close the lead with three runs in the third inning, but the Tigers cemented their win with two runs in the fourth. Senior Joe Osborn had an RBI single and junior Narumi Okayasu plated a run with a fielder’s choice and ballooned the lead to 8-3.
Senior pitcher Aaron Forrest secured the win with a solid six-inning performance, allowing three runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out three batters. This win moves him into a tie for third all-time in career wins.
The Tigers had a quick turnaround after their first win, playing Culver-Stockton College mere hours after their game with Columbia. Back-to-back two-out doubles for Culver-Stockton put the Tigers down early, but they quickly rebounded with a Okayasu sacrifice fly for the first run scored, followed by freshman Brayden Jones adding a two-run double to tie the game at 3-3 through the first inning.
The score remained static until the fourth inning, a two-out single in the fourth inning led to Culver-Stockton gaining two more runs. Senior Luke LaChance closed the lead with an RBI-double in the bottom of the fourth, the Tigers trailed 4-5 coming out of the fourth.
LaChance stayed hot, giving the Tigers the lead in the sixth inning after he doubled to score two runners, and then capitalizing off an error to give the Tigers a lead of 7-5 they would not relinquish the rest of the game. Junior pitcher Raidyn Steele collected the win with 3.0 innings of work and only gave two hits and a walk to a Culver-Stockton team that started the game with a potent offense. Steele struck out three batters as well.
On Feb. 10, Doane went on to play both Columbia and Culver-Stockton again and went on to give both teams another loss each. In the Tigers first game of the day against Columbia, they fell behind early due to two runs in the bottom of the second inning with a pair of two-out singles. The Tiger bats came alive in the third inning, tying the game off of a double from senior Joe Osborn with two outs to bring in LaChance and junior Logan Amick, tying the game at 2-2.
LaChance continued his scoring run from the previous games with a two-out single to bring Vulcano home and give Doane the lead of 3-2. Vulcano went on to get an RBI of his after hitting in Okayasu, making the lead grow to 4-2 which turned out to be the final score.
Sophomore pitcher Kaden Crawford secured the first complete game of the season for the Tigers, pitching all seven innings in the shortened game and only allowing six hits, a walk and striking out three batters.
Doane continued their winning ways against Culver-Stockton. This time, the Tigers reined in Culver-Stocktons’ offense, which gave them some trouble in the first game. The first runs of the game came in the third courtesy of LaChance, with a triple that brought in Freshman Brayden Jones. Culver-Stockton matched the run with a two-out single, tying the game 1-1 but this would be the last run Culver-Stockton would score.
After a lead-off single by LaChance in the fifth inning, Jones drew a walk and Amick performed a sacrifice fly to bring in a runner. Osborne added another in the fifth with an RBI-single, expanding the lead to 3-1.
The final run of the gme was kickstarted by junior Cristian Yanez, who drew a walk and then was brought to second after a wild-pitch, and then rounding to third on a ground out. LaChance brought Yanez with a single, making the score 4-1 in the sixth, which would hold for the Doane win. Freshman Broc Songster made his first collegiate pitching debut and pitched a strong 4.0 innings and allowing one run on six hits and a walk while striking out four batters.
The Tigers will play their next games in Oklahoma City on February 16 and 17 and compete against the ranked No. 13 MidAmerica Nazarene University in their first game on Feb. 16, followed by a matchup with Oklahoma City University. The Tigers will face OCU again on Feb 17.
