Baseball falls short

The Xavier men's baseball team, who stood at 1-2 before this weekend, traveled to Charleston, S.C. to play three games over the weekend, losing all three games. They faced Connecticut, Rhode Island and the College of Charleston. So far this season the team has not had much trouble putting up runs, but they have had issues giving up runs. In the first game this weekend against Connecticut, the

Musketeers lost 12-7. Starting pitcher redshirt sophomore

Vinny Nitoli made it to the third inning before giving up three runs and then gave up another three in the fourth inning for a total of six earned runs given up. He has now fallen to 0-2 on the season. In the fifth inning, freshman pitcher Alex Westrick stepped in and had the best pitching performance

of the weekend, going three and two-thirds innings without

giving up any earned runs. He gave up two hits and had

three strikeouts during his time on the mound. During the game against Rhode Island, Xavier gave up 13 hits and

lost 8-4. Starting pitcher junior Jon Richard went five innings giving up five earned runs on nine hits. He also had seven strikeouts. In the third game of the weekend against the College of Charleston the Musketeers had a defensive battle and lost 4-1. The starting pitcher was redshirt junior Tyler Koors, who went five giving up two runs on four hits.

The Musketeers had 14 hits on 90 at bats and got walked a

total of 11 times over the course of the weekend. They also had a total of five errors over the course of the weekend which really hurt their chances of pulling out victories.

"Defensively we need to make more plays," head coach Scott Googins said before the games this weekend. His statement was right on point. The Musketeers will need to

find ways to stabilize their defense and find ways to allow the starting pitchers to gain confidence. The team will now head to Lexington, Ky. today to play the Wildcats on their home field. After that, they will be traveling down to Port Charlotte, FL on Saturday to play various schools during the week.