COLUMBIA -- On Saturday, the Westminster College baseball team started a four-game series against the Grinnell College Pioneers. Unfortunately, the forecast forced the game to be held at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia.
Bode Gebbink (St. Joseph, Ill./St. Joseph-Ogden) got the start on the mound for the Blue Jays. He would have a rough outing in the rain, pitching two innings and giving up six hits.
The Pioneers would score eight runs on him, and he would be charged with three earned runs. Gebbink struck out two and walked a batter.
The Pioneers' bats would be hot to start their first game of the season, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning.
The Blue Jays would respond in their half of the frame with Steven Diaz (Highland, Ill./Highland) getting a lead-off walk. He would steal second base as well.
Jason Pesold (Arnold/St. Pius X) would ground out but could move Diaz to third base.
Payton Whitehead (Belleville, Ill./Belleville West) singled to score Diaz and get the Jays on the board. Whitehead would steal second, but unfortunately, it would leave him stranded as the next two batters would get out to end the inning.
Grinnell would score one run in the top of the second and again in the top of the third inning to take a 9-1 lead.
The Blue Jays would go down one, two, three in the bottom of the second and third inning.
Skyler Bushey (Saint Albans, Vt./Bellows Free Academy) would hit a one-out double in the bottom of the fourth, but he would get left on base.
Ryan Mills (Festus/Hancock) would start the bottom of the fifth with a hit-by-pitch.
Matt Lutkins (Clark/Rock Bridge) would draw a walk to put runners on first and second. Then, the runners would move up on a passed ball.
Pesold would get walked to load the bases for Whitehead. He would deliver with a bases-clearing double to make it 9-4.
Bushey would walk to put runners on first and second with two outs. But, unfortunately, the next Blue Jay batter would strike out swinging to end the inning.
Heavy rain would fall at the top of the sixth inning, and the umpires would call the game.
The Pioneers would win the game 9-4 in six innings. Unfortunately, the rain would cancel Game 2 as well.
The Blue Jays will be back in action Sunday with a doubleheader to finish the series with Grinnell. Those games will return at Westminster College, with the first pitch scheduled for 11 a.m.