A couple passed balls, a couple mental plays and the “little things,” according to acting manager Greg Starbuck, were the downfall for the Elon University baseball team Sunday May 12 on senior day and the regular season finale against Samford University.
Looking to end the season with a five-game winning streak, which would have matched a season-high, the Phoenix battled back from a 2-0 deficit in the first inning to lead 3-2 through four innings. Elon senior starter Spencer Medick relinquished that lead in the top of the fifth and the Phoenix would never regain the advantage in the 6-4 loss to the Bulldogs.
Given the conditions and the pitcher he had on the mound, Starbuck knew from right fielder Christiaan Durdaller’s first at bat it would be a big day for the senior.
“In the first inning I was sitting beside (assistant coach) Robbie (Huffstetler) and I went, ‘I don’t like this matchup. I don’t like Durdaller with his swing against Spencer,’” Starbuck said. “Sure enough in his first at bat with two outs and a man on first, I look at the flag and it’s kind of going crazy and I just went, ‘I don’t like this.’ You don’t want to walk him in the first inning but I wanted to pitch him careful, but I didn’t want to set the tone for Spencer and boom, home run.”
Durdaller’s two-run homer went just over the outstretched glove of center fielder Sebastian Gomez for the two-out home run. All six of Samford’s runs came with two outs in their respective innings.
Samford junior pitcher Patrick McGavin gave Elon batters fits in the first three innings. The only two baserunners the Phoenix could manage in the first three innings were a walk to Joey Tomko and Tyler McVicar getting hit by a pitch. McGavin regained form to get senior catcher Alex Swim to pop into an infield fly and sophomore second baseman Wil Leathers to ground into an inning-ending double play, third to first.
The Phoenix broke through in the fourth inning for two runs on no hits when junior first baseman Ryan Kinsella led off with a walk. He was followed by a show chopper to third by sophomore third baseman Joey Tomko. The throw from Tomko’s counterpart Tommy Corbin pulled junior first baseman C.K. Irby off the bag and allowed Tomko to reach base.
A five-pitch walk to McVicar brought Swim to the plate. Swim roped a single into the glove of left fielder Caleb Bryson to score a tagging Kinsella. Bryson then airmailed the throw back into the infield into the Samford dugout to bring Tomko home.
Elon got its first hit one batter later to break the short-lived tie in the form of a Leathers’ double down the left field line to score McVicar. That signaled the end of the day on the hill for McGavin. He stayed in the game as the designated hitter.
The lead was short-lived as Medick hit shortstop Austin Allison with a two-strike fastball with one out in the frame. Two batters later, junior center fielder Phillip Ervin walked and Irby singled to right field to bring home Allison and tie the game at three.
“I thought Spencer was outstanding today,” Starbuck said. “He’s kind of hit a wall here in the last month but today, we were teeter-tottering in the fourth and fifth innings and on Sundays, you don’t have enough innings in the bullpen so we decided to stick with him and he almost got a second wind there which is good.”
Tied until the top of the seventh inning, Medick retired senior second baseman Zeth Stone before allowing a single to Ervin. Two batters later, Durdaller proved Starbuck right again by hitting his second two-run home run of the game, this time over the left field fence.
“You kick yourself for not getting him out before that,” Starbuck said. “I thought his stuff was still good enough and maybe I went a hitter too long. I did go a hitter too long.”
“Little” plays in the top of the ninth inning allowed Samford to pick up an insurance run when Stone led off the inning with a single. He advanced to second base on a ball in the dirt in which Swim stopped but didn’t get to in time to get Stone.
Senior reliever Jordan Darnell came out of the bullpen and walked Ervin before striking out Irby. Durdaller again caused havoc on Elon pitching, this time with an RBI single to right field that brought home Stone as Casey Jones, who entered in the fourth inning as a pinch hitter, bobbled the ball as he came up to throw.
“We’ve been pretty inconsistent all year,” Tomko said. “We know we just need to do the little things and be more fundamentally sound and doing the right things every day in order to pull out wins like this. We just didn’t do them today.”
Though Elon battled back in the bottom of the inning by pushing one run across, it wasn’t enough as Samford held on for the win.
Ironically, in the bottom of the ninth inning, Swim became the first out of the inning on a strikeout in his final plate appearance at Latham Park. Through his four years at Elon, he was consistently ranked one of the hardest players in the country to strike out.
“This was really a microcosm of the season,” Swim said. “We come out fired up and play well for a few innings then we have that one inning we kind of let it get away from us and it seems we just cant close the gap on that one inning and it gets away from us.”
Picked as the preseason favorite in the Southern Conference, Elon finishes the season right where they started at .500 with a record of 27-27. In conference play, the Phoenix finish 18-11 and are guaranteed a top four seed in the conference tournament 10 days from Sunday. However, the Phoenix are out of contention for a first place finish with the loss.
"I told the guys that I thought the difference in being 27-27 and 37-17 is the little things," Starbuck said. "We don't do the little things. There were probably 10 or 12 things during the game where I went, ‘There’s another situation.' Just little things people don’t notice but it’s the things that put yourselves in position to win more often then not."
Prior to the game, Elon honored its 11 seniors. While he was not allowed in the dugout for being ejected in Saturday's 8-7 win, Elon manager Mike Kennedy was allowed to participate in the senior day festivities. Normally if a manager or player is ejected, he is not allowed on the field an hour before scheduled first pitch. The league made an exception to allow Kennedy to participate in sending his seniors off before being relegated back to the locker room for the duration of the game.