History on the hill

Junior pitcher Ryan Trimble became the first Bulldog to throw a complete game shutout in more than a decade, ending the drought with a 3-0 Bulldog victory. He struck out 11 hitters Friday while walking one and facing five batters more than the minimum and giving up three hits.

 "My big pitch was the changeup that I was throwing," Trimble said. "I'd get them with two strikes and then just kind of throw that changeup out of the zone. It just kind of dove away from them, and they were swinging at it, so I mean it's kind of easy when they are swinging at pitches that are out of the strike zone."

 Truman took three of four from Northwest Missouri State University in a series that featured two straight days of doubleheader games due to weather postponing Saturday's game. The three wins make the Bulldogs 6-10 in the MIAA and 7-13 overall. Last season, they had just seven conference wins.

Sophomore Jarrett Eiskina immediately after followed up Trimble's complete game with one of his own. He went nine innings, walking one and striking out 11. Five batters got hits off Eiskina. His season ERA now sits at 2.90, second only to Trimble's 2.18 ERA which is the best on staff.

"It shows that the future of our program is pretty good when our No. 2 is as good — if he's not as good he's better — than our No. 1 pitcher on the weekend," head coach Dan Davis said.

Senior pitcher Kyle Veazey picked up his second win of the season in a 4-3 decision after pitching nine innings in the series finale Sunday. Veazey had eight strikeouts.

"The first inning was a little rough," Veazey said. "Left some balls up. Just wasn't attacking the zone. Really after the first inning I settled in. Defense played tremendous behind me, and then it was just attacking the strike zone, getting ahead in the count and really started working."

 The only Bulldog pitcher to take a loss was junior Tyler Stefan who pitched six and two-thirds in the first game Sunday, a 1-0 loss. Stefan hit Bearcat sophomore outfielder Evan Connell with the bases loaded to bring in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Stefan's 5.04 ERA is the highest of any Bulldog starter. He gave up six earned runs in his last two starts and is 0-3 with a 6.13 ERA in his last three starts.

Three of Northwest's pitchers threw complete games during the series. Sophomore Chase Anderson, along with seniors Jayson Huett and Chris Green, combined to throw 25 innings. The Bearcat starters had a series ERA of 2.03.

 Neither team broke double-digits in runs for the series combined. Seven of the nine combined runs scored by both teams during the four games came in the final game Monday. Truman scored all four of its runs in the top of the ninth inning.

 "We got clutch hits," Davis said. "Runners in scoring position  — we brought them in. I think we had three two-out hits in the first game, and in the last game in the last inning we had another two-out hit that scored runs. And those are like back-breakers for the other team. Whenever you give up a two-out hit to score a run, it's almost like the wind comes out of your sails. … We didn't hit very well on the weekend per batting average but when it came time to get the job done we hit and hit well."