TJ baseball drops two in a row and is off to a slow start in 2009.
The Spartans have started off the season with a record of 2-5 and are searching for answers. photo by Kevin Fleming
It looked as if TJ baseball had finally taken a turn out of their early season slump after a monstrous 12-1 victory over Montbello, but the slump continues on after two consecutive losses.
On March 20th the Spartans took on the Chaparral Wolverines and were knocked out 16-14 in 8 innings. The Spartans were in the driver’s seat most of the game but five costly defensive errors were the main cause of another tally in the loss column.
Junior Chris Needham hit two homeruns and Senior Sam Thomas added another in the valiant offensive effort. “We have a talented team and a great offensive unit, but if we keep committing errors at key moments in the game we are not going to do well,” said Thomas. Sophomore Kyle Freeland, Sophomore Chris Van Dyke, and Needham pitched for TJ in the loss.
The following day the Spartans traveled to Loveland to play the Mountain View Mountain Lions, and got off to a terrific start behind Junior Brennan Henry‘s superb pitching and the score was 4-1 in favor of TJ until the bottom of the 6th inning when the Spartans committed four errors and consequently were defeated 10-4.
Due to snowy conditions in the Denver Metro area the games that were to take place against Arvada and Eaglecrest during Spring Break were cancelled, but will be rescheduled later in the season.
The North Vikings await TJ and the opportunity to get on track awaits the Spartans, considering they have had consistant success against their DPL foes. The Spartans and the Vikings will play on Wednesday, April 1st at TJ. The first pitched will be at 4:15 pm.
