4/26/2007

Only two more games are left until the Falcon baseball team plays at the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament. The tournament games will be played May 3, but the time and location of those games remains undecided.

The team’s past four conference games added seven wins to its record and only one loss against the University of Saint Mary, 5-11, in a doubleheader. Friends won the first game against Saint Mary, 8-4.

Matt Mansfield, a senior catcher, thinks the Falcons lost because they underestimated their opponent and didn't play with all their energy. Mansfield finds that keeping their energy high is the team’s biggest obstacle.

In the previous conference game, the Falcons triumphed over Tabor College with doubleheader wins, 5-3 and 7-1. Next the team defeated Ottawa University, also a conference opponent, in another doubleheader, 20-7 and 8-4. Sterling College lost a doubleheader against the Falcons, 16-6 and 14-4.

Games against Mid-America Christian University gave the team another win of 7-1 but also a loss of 1-5. This week, the Falcons took on Manhattan Christian College and won the doubleheader 8-3 and 9-2.

The last two games against Newman University and Bethany College will be played in Wichita. The Newman game, on Newman’s territory, will be 7 p.m. April 27 with the Bethany College game the next day at 1 p.m. at Westurban complex. The Falcons will play Bethany in a doubleheader conference game.

Joe Thibault, a sophomore third basemen for the Falcons, expects the Newman game to go well but worries about the game against Bethany.

“It’s going to be fun and intense. Hopefully we’ll come out on top,” he said.

With the season slowly coming to an end, Thibault believes the team has a good chance of coming out on top this year and next year.

“We are playing really well,” he said. “We have a good chance of winning league.”