CONCORDIA, Kan. -- Despite playing some of its best baseball of the early preseason the Minnesota West Bluejays baseball team dropped a pair of contests, 12-0 and 6-0, to Cloud County Community College Wednesday afternoon.
"With the exception of two innings in the opener, we played a good brand of baseball and hung in there with a strong Division I (NJCAA) team," MW head coach Jeremy Irlbeck said. "Any time you face a team that offers 24 scholarships, you know your inn for a tough game, but these are the games that will help us during our season, and we have to have a big-picture philosophy in the preseason."
In Game 1, Brian Harberts suffered the loss. Harberts gave up nine earned runs on seven hits and struck out one over 1 2/3 innings.
"Brian left the ball up a few times and paid the price, but it was a good learning experience for him," Irlbeck said. "Cloud County is a good fastball-hitting team and they got a hold of a few pitches."
Lon Eichenberger came into the game in relief of Harberts and allowed no runs on no hits, while striking out two and walking no one in facing seven batters over 2 1/3 innings.
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"Lon came in and shut them down," Irlbeck said. "Unfortunately, we left six runners on base and couldn't get a run across."
Adam Feller, Ryan Swanson, Darrell Kruger, Eichenberger and Harberts each had a hit for the Bluejays (1-5).
MW 000 00 -- 0 5 1
CC 480 0X -- 12 7 1
In Game 2, the Bluejays fared better, although the result was the same.
Trent Anderson took the hill for the Bluejays, giving up four earned runs on four hits over 5 1/3 innings.
"Trent kept the ball down and had a solid outing," Irlbeck said.
Andrew DeBoer was 2-for-3 at the plate for the Bluejays. Reid Strand connected for a double, while Harberts also had a hit for MW.
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"We swung the bats well, but struggled to score -- leaving eight on base," Irlbeck said.
MW 000 000 0 -- 0 4 2
CC 000 123 X -- 6 5 3
The Bluejays will continue their extensive preseason road trip today when they square off against the Mount Marty JV and the Briar Cliff JV in Sioux City, Iowa.
