When Ben Haskell, a pitcher for the Friends University baseball team, stepped up to the mound, he was excited about the chance to pitch at Lawrence Dumont Stadium.

 “It was really nice to play in this ball park -- a chance to throw in a Double A stadium,” Haskell said.  

The team played doubleheader games against the Kansas Wesleyan University Coyotes on Saturday, April 22, and Haskell pitched for the first game, which the team won 5-2.  In game two, Friends fell behind early and lost 8-9.  

The team lost both games against Tabor College on Wednesday night, 4-1 and 5-0. 

The team’s overall record now falls to 25-14 and 12-10 in conference, giving the Falcons a fourth place ranking in the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference and making it necessary for the Falcons to play in the conference tournament next Thursday. Friends still has a chance to take the third place spot in conference if it beats the University of St. Mary on Saturday.

At this point no single player is leading the team, but different players have helped the team pull through tight games. Coach Mark Carvalho sees the need for team leadership and consistency and said the past two weeks have been frustrating.   

“(We are) still learning each other,” he said. “Everybody’s new.”

 There are positives. Several players have been contributing. 

“Our defense is usually there,” Carvalho said. “Our pitchers have done well this year — well enough to win.” 

And that win is what Haskell, the pitcher, helped to accomplish in game one Saturday by pitching four strikeouts. Although he gave up six hits to Kansas Wesleyan, the Coyotes were only able to score two runs off his pitching. 

Haskell, who transferred to Friends several weeks into the spring semester, attributes his success on the mound to two factors -- the team’s defense and his strong work ethic.

“I work really hard in between my starts, and I think that really helps me,” Haskell said. 

In Haskell’s mind, Joel Bagucki, a junior second baseman, kept the Falcons in both of Saturday’s games. 

His ability at bat and making some key plays on the field contributed to Saturday’s win in game one — a game tied in the top of the sixth inning.

But in the bottom of that inning, the Falcons rallied to take the lead, scoring two runs off a home run by Brandon Johnson, a senior.

Game two was a different story.  Kansas Wesleyan came out running, bringing home five men in the first inning. Kansas Wesleyan’s David Price sent a home run soaring into left field that sent him and another runner home.

In the top of the second, the Coyotes hit another home run, picking up an additional run.  This prompted the Falcon coaches to pull out pitcher Ryan Mullens, senior, and put pitcher Scott Holcomb, a junior, into the game. In the bottom of the second, Friends picked up its first run. 

In the fourth inning, Friends secured an additional run. 

When Friends stepped up to the plate in the bottom of the fifth inning, Steve Shaw, the third baseman, contributed to the team, allowing two runners to reach home off a hit. Shaw switched to playing time on the varsity schedule in the middle of the season.  

Carvalho noticed Shaw’s game-time performance.

“He’s probably one of the best on the team on execution,” Carvalho said. “He’s one of those team players.”

Holcomb, who pitched six innings in game two, managed to keep the Coyotes scoreless in the top of the sixth inning. Zadoc Christensen, the Falcon short stop, got a teammate home off a solid hit, adding one of the two runs picked up by the Falcons in the bottom of the sixth inning, leaving Friends trailing 8-6.

The Falcons looked to pull off a win in the seventh and final inning by limiting the Coyotes to one run.  Offense in the final inning would determine the outcome.  Bagucki, the Falcon second baseman, slammed a ball into right field.  The Coyote player stretched out his glove to catch the ball, but narrowly missed it, touching it with only the tip of his glove.  In the end, Friends failed by only one point to tie the game, with a final outcome of 9-8.

Catcher Andrew Gulla, a Kansas Wesleyan junior, said that his team’s plan was to drive past the Falcons early.

“We just wanted to score every inning,” he said. 

 Christensen, the Falcon short stop, thought his team had beaten itself.

“They got ahead at first,” Christensen said.  “It was really tough coming back after that.”

Wednesday night’s doubleheader game against Tabor added two tough losses to the team record.

“It was a little disappointing,” said Matt Braumberger who pitched all seven innings of the first game.  “Reallly, we just couldn’t buy a hit.”

Carvalho agreed and said that his team had difficulty adjusting to Tabor pitching and only had six hits in game one and two hits in game two.   

“We’re a better team than that,” he said. 

The third, fourth, fifth and sixth place teams will play in the KCAC conference tournament held in Wichita next Thursday, May 4.  The Falcons will play their first game at 4 p.m. and their second game at 7 p.m. Only the winner of that tournament will join the first and second seeded teams at the Region IV tournament at Hobart-Detter Field in Hutchinson on May 10.

The Falcons play their final conference game of the season against the University of St. Mary at West Urban baseball Complex at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 29.