After weeks of monotonous practice sessions indoors due to the cold and snow of Winter 2003, the Tiger baseball team got away for a Spring Break week in Florida.
Accordingly, the Tigers bats heated up in the Sunshine State as Wittenberg averaged more than 15 runs per game en route to a 7-1-1 record to start the season. In Florida, Wittenberg won its first six games, defeating Carroll College, 20-12 and 18-7, St. Josephs College, 9-7, 14-1 and Central College, 3-2 and 15-12 before finally dropping one against Central, 12-6. The week wrapped up with 15-3 victory over Monmouth and a 14-14 tie with Benedictine in a game that was suspended due to time limits.
Since returning to Springfield, the Tigers have split four games to arrive at their current 9-3-1 overall record. On Saturday at Muskingum, Wittenberg won the opener 2-1 behind a complete-game pitching performance by sophomore righthander Ryan Goldschmidt (Ft. Loramie, Ohio/Ft. Loramie) and fell 10-2 in the nightcap. On Sunday, the Tigers dropped the opener at Wilmington 12-3 before rallying in the second game to win 7-5 on the strength of home runs by sophomores Brandon Godzik (Vandalia, Ohio/Butler) and Matt Foster (Granville, Ohio/Granville).
Brandon Godzik
Individually, senior Ryan Born (Marion, Ohio/Pleasant) leads the NCAC with a .595 batting average. He has 18 RBI, two hom runs and 25 hits in just 13 games. Godzik is right on his heels, ranking fourth in the conference with a robust .490 batting average and leading the NCAC with 25 RBI, 23 runs scored and seven round-trippers. In addition, freshman shortstop K.R. Schlievert (Findlay, Ohio/Findlay) ranks seventh in the conference with a .469 average and fourth in runs scored with 18.
The Tigers have a four-game weekend series against Wabash coming up. The Saturday doubleheader will be broadcast by WULM 1600 AM.