May 6th, 2003: Baseball Review
The Tiger baseball team wrapped up the 2003 season with a three-game win streak and perhaps some momentum for what is expected to be an exciting 2004 season for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is the abundance of young talent that returns to the roster next year hoping to build on the ups and downs experienced in 2003 and the upcoming groundbreaking of a new municipal stadium, which will be a state-of-the-art home field for the Tigers for many years to come.
The Tiger baseball team wrapped up the 2003 season with a three-game win streak and perhaps some momentum for what is expected to be an exciting 2004 season for a variety of reasons. Chief among them is the abundance of young talent that returns to the roster next year hoping to build on the ups and downs experienced in 2003 and the upcoming groundbreaking of a new municipal stadium, which will be a state-of-the-art home field for the Tigers for many years to come.
The Springfield City Commission recently awarded a $2.66 million contract to build a new municipal stadium on the site of the old stadium, which was demolished in March 2001 after serving the community for more than 70 years and playing host to Wittenberg baseball games between 1981 and 2000. Groundbreaking on the new stadium, which will be given a new name at that time, is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, May 16. District officials hope the stadium will be completed in time for Wittenbergs 2004 season. The stadium is a joint venture between Wittenberg, the National Trail Parks and Recreation District and the city of Springfield, and it is the first major project of the districts $17 million, five-year capital campaign.
The stadium will have seating capacity of 1,061, with a minimum of 50 percent of the seats under cover. Among its finer features will be a full-service media center, locker room facilities, a concessions area, secured storage for equipment, a state-of-the-art scoreboard, a paved parking lot and high-quality field lighting.
The stadium has served as home to minor league professional baseball teams in past years and hosted numerous youth league, high school and collegiate baseball tournaments. It has already been mentioned as a possible future site of the NCAC baseball tournament and the NCAA Division III Mid-East Regional.
Last week, the Tigers final two games were victories over Mount St. Joseph at home on Wednesday and Otterbein on the road on Thursday by scores of 13-8 and 3-2 respectively.
Against Mount St. Joseph, the Tigers jumped out to a 6-1 lead through the first three innings and then had to rally with five runs in the sixth and two in the seventh to claim the victory. Freshman K.R. Schlievert (Findlay, Ohio/Findlay) had four hits, sophomore Jon Komperda (Bay Village, Ohio/Bay) added three hits and three runs scored and sophomore Matt Foster (Granville, Ohio/Granville) added a two-run home run and three RBI total to the offensive effort.
Against Otterbein, sophomore Ryan Goldschmidt (Ft. Loramie, Ohio/Ft. Loramie) pitched one of his best games of the year, going seven innings and giving up two runs before turning things over to freshman Steve Less (Sheffield, Ohio/Elyria Catholic), who got the win when sophomore Brandon Godzik (Vandalia, Ohio/Butler) homered to lead off the ninth inning and senior Ryan Born (Marion, Ohio/Pleasant) came around to score the winning run on an error later in the inning.