CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The University of Charleston's Ross Easterling knows just how fickle the baseball gods can be.
"Today I hit one in the gap and the kid runs it down,'' said the former Logan High School standout. "It's baseball, a game of luck.
"You get that one that barely goes off the end of the bat drop in for a base hit then you can square one up perfectly and it goes right to someone. There's nothing you can do about it.''
The bad luck continued for Easterling and his Golden Eagle teammates Saturday afternoon as they dropped a pair of 3-2 decisions to West Virginia Wesleyan in seeing their losing streak hit eight games. A crowd of about 70 braved the chilly temperatures for the West Virginia Conference doubleheader at Appalachian Power Park.
UC (5-16 overall, 2-7 WVC) has lost 11 games by two runs or less this season.
"We're having runners in scoring position a lot of the innings and we're not getting that base hit when we need it,'' said Easterling, a 5-foot-10, 175-pound sophomore shortstop who went 1-for-7 and scored a run in the two games.
"It gets old losing one-run games and games that we should win. I feel like we're getting closer. We're getting more hits and we're fielding the ball a lot better defensively now. That really helps out. I feel like we're getting more confident and settling down a little bit.''
The Golden Eagles received two well-pitched games from junior Tim Ponn and senior Anthony Pagano. UC only committed one error in the two games.
Ponn (1-3) surrendered just two earned runs on eight hits in a complete-game effort with four strikeouts and no walks in the opener. Pagano (0-5) gave up three earned runs on seven hits in 61/3 innings with four punchouts and four walks.
"We have a really good pitching staff,'' said Easterling. "As long as they're throwing strikes and we're fielding the ball behind them like we should be, I feel like at the plate we'll come around. We have a lot of good athletes and everyone's swinging the bat pretty well.''
Wesleyan (11-6, 5-2) built a 3-0 lead in the first game on Levi Bender's run-scoring single in the third and Cy Mozingo's run-scoring single and Tanner Burns' sacrifice fly in the fourth.
UC freshman Ryan Foster drove in a run with a groundout in the fifth and junior Andrew Stichter singled in a run in the sixth, but the Golden Eagles went down 1-2-3 in the seventh to end the game.
After falling behind 2-0 in the top of the first in the second game, the Golden Eagles tied it at 2-all in the second on freshman Brad Johnson's two-run single. Mark Darlington's RBI single with two outs in the third gave the Bobcats the lead for good at 3-2. Easterling flied out to right field with a runner on third to end the fourth inning, and Foster and Johnson each grounded out with a runner on second to end the sixth.
No UC player had more than one hit or an extra-base hit in the opener, and no one had an extra-base hit in the nightcap.
"We've just got to get over the hump,'' said UC coach Tom Nozica. "Today the pitching was strong enough to win, we made plays defensively but we didn't get that timely hit.
"That's baseball. We just can't give up on the guy next to you and you can't give up on yourself. We're just not clicking on all the cylinders at the right time. Tomorrow's a new day and we'll get after them and see what happens.''
Wesleyan starter Chad Modomo (3-1) earned the win in the first game, allowing one earned run in 52/3 innings. Nathan Gainer locked up his first save with 11/3 innings of scoreless work. In the second game, Kevin Holdsworth (4-1) allowed two earned runs on eight hits with eight strikeouts in seven innings.
UC will take on Wesleyan in a single game at 1 p.m. today at Triana Field next to the school's South Ruffner campus.
