Pioneers Drop Series to Cleveland

By: Nick Kieser

GALLATIN, TENNESSEE — The Volunteer State Community College Pioneer baseball program has lost it's the latest conference series to the visiting Cleveland State Community College Cougars.

Vol State had a tough time early on in the series which started Friday, April 12 with a doubleheader and the Cougars jumped ahead after the second inning in game one which led to a 3-1 loss. Cleveland State's Ryan Inches pitched a complete game for six strikeouts in the win.

Corey Wilson, now (4-5) in his first season, pitched in game one totaling six innings pitched, seven hits allowed, three runs allowed, and striking out 11 batters which is a career high in one game as a freshman.

"It was a tough offensive series. We needed a few more hits to make some things happen and right now we are struggling and that's all there is to it," said catcher Zeke Lecomte who had two hits in three games this series.

Game two on the same day Jack Sensing pitched for six innings allowing five hits, one run, and striking out eight of Cleveland State's batters. Starting eight games this season Sensing now has 46 strikeouts and 44.1 innings pitched.

"Overall it's three bad games by us and there's really not much more to say. We just couldn't click offensively," said Sensing.

"Sometimes you just aren't on and it's not fun when the whole team is kind of off, but with one person getting hot the rest of the team can get hot. We're waiting for that moment and if we get hot here late near the end then we could be a really good team," said Lecomte.

The figurative vinyl record that has been on repeat the entire season is the consistency aspect of playing baseball. As for the last streak it's been since April 3 that the program has had the wins go their way.

Dropping four in a row the Pioneers have nine games left on the regular season and to be a program with a winning record the team will need to compile that exact number of wins to finish the 2019 season 25-24.  

"We have to prepare for some good competition and some good hitting. Working on hitting all week and that's what we will have to do, it's just part of the game and you're going to struggle at times but we need to come out and be focused," said Lecomte on how to get ready for heading off to Motlow on Friday for the last road conference series.

Wrapping up the series loss to Cleveland the Pioneers were shut-out 4-0 and Brett Wilkins is now (1-5) on the season. The biggest moment of the weekend was when Chris Barnes hit a home run over the right-field wall in game one. Barnes has two home runs on the season.

Road tripping to Tullahoma, Tennessee is what the Pioneers have in store this Friday and the Motlow State Bucks currently sit in second place in the conference. Playing their latest series the Bucks lost two of three games to Columbia State Community College.

Follow the Vol State baseball program on Twitter @VSCCPioneersBSB for all the latest news and analysis surrounding the team.