I have this terrible habit of jumping to conclusions and casting judgment all-too-quickly. This is probably why I will never be a Clipper fan and will always view sociology majors as part-time students.

So when the Pomona-Pitzer baseball team fell last week to the Chapman Panthers 8-4, I immediately assumed that we would keel over and pretend to die like the Sagehens we are. Sagehen baseball is dead, I said to myself....just like Elvis. Just like Elvis.

Naturally, as math professors have so often told me, I have been proven wrong.

The past week of Pomona-Pitzer baseball has unveiled a solid pitching staff backed by a potent offense, winning three of four games and improving their record to 3-2.

The first victory came against Westmont, as five Sagehens pitchers held the Warriors to four runs and seven hits to secure a comfortable 7-4 victory. Mike Renery ’03 started the game while Spike Einsiedler ’02 closed it out, both contributing three innings of one-hit ball. The Warriors only threatened in a three run third, cutting the lead to 5-4, but that would be as close as they would get as the Sagehens added two in the eighth and brushed off any notion of a comeback.

The second game, this one against Cal State Hayward, proved fairly similar to the first one, as Sean Gilbert ’03 and Sonny Mott PI ’03 held a lethargic Cal State offense to five hits and three runs, concluding a rather quiet 6-3 win for the Hens. It was one of those games that could only be interesting if hockey rules were suddenly implemented in the fifth. And if they used hockey sticks in place of bats and pucks in place of balls… and if it were all on ice. And if there were somehow gorillas involved.

Ok, now that we got all the boring stuff out of the way, the third game of the week was a 12-6 loss to Cal State Hayward.

Yeah that’s right, the very same Cal State Hayward that dropped the soap the game before. While the Hens trailed by only one run (7-6) until the seventh inning, the team fell apart after that stretch, allowing five runs and scoring none in the crucial final three innings. Sagehen pitchers got ripped apart like my English papers, allowing 12 runs on 12 hits while issuing 8 walks to a team that had only five hits the game before.

However, rebounding from this somewhat disheartening loss, Pomona-Pitzer took out their aggression on Menlo Oaks. Dominating the Oaks as if their arms were tied to bedposts, the spirited Sagehens took over the basepaths for ten runs, scoring in every inning but the fifth. Einsiedler coasted to a six-hit complete game victory in which he allowed only one earned run. After the Oaks threatened in the second, fourth, and fifth innings, mostly due to errors, Einsiedler silenced their offense, which proved as quiet as Claremont Village nightlife in the final four innings.

Luke Smude ’02 led the offense with two runs scored and his first home run of the season. Matt Rager ’02, who leads the Hens in home runs and RBIs, provided two doubles and two RBIs. Moreover, Alex Siele ’02 broke out of a short slump, going three for four with three RBIs.

Overall, the Oaks pitching proved to be an embarrassing spectacle and personally, I felt insulted just to have seen it.

Then again, it could be a sign of a Sagehen team that is steadily coming together and blossoming into a strong team.

"The week went pretty well," Rager remarked. "We played a bunch of solid teams and at the same time identified with some of the things we have to focus and work on, such as mental mistakes and playing a solid nine innings. It looks really promising. We’re happy with the way we’re playing. We know we can improve even more and hopefully should be really successful."

The Hens face off against Redlands on February 24.