June 20, 2018 By Chris Varney
How good is the Grinnell Tiger baseball team?
It is a good question because I am not sure of the answer. Grinnell is 15-5 going into tonight’s key doubleheader against Dallas Center-Grimes. The Tigers have had their ups and downs this season. They have been ranked in the Class 3A coaches poll but then went tumbling out after getting swept by Oskaloosa last Friday in a DH. After those games, Head Coach Tony Stenberg indicated that the team looked defeated before the games even started.
The strength of this Tiger team is pitching but the staff was stretched to the limit last week and went into the Osky games shorthanded. I guess you blame the pitch count rule for the unavailability of Jayden Gibson, Ethan Mitchell and Drew Coffman against the Indians. But you can also blame Grinnell for creating the situation by pushing the limits of all three pitchers earlier in the week.
Gibson has been terrific this year — he is hitting .456 with 21 RBI plus has been the ace of the staff, allowing just 4 earned runs in 33 plus innings of work. Mitchell has been equally great — hitting .453 and on the mound, allowing just 5 earned runs in 30 plus innings. Jake Hull has an ERA of 1.93 and is hitting .359 with 17 RBI.
Outside of the big three, Grinnell has seen moments from the rest of the team but has not seen consistency. Oskaloosa did a good job of pitching around Gibson and forcing the rest of the line-up to beat them. It worked — Gibson walked three times but was held hitless and Grinnell had just 4 hits total. Stenberg was completely unhappy with the Tigers approach at the plate.
Grinnell beat Newton 4-3 on Monday but the bottom of the line-up went a combined 0-15. The Tigers need more production from Colin Gibson, Nick Popp, Spencer Mauss, Brock Beck, and Gavin McFarland to take some of the pressure off the top of the line up guys.
The Tigers have not won a playoff game since 2012 — that is 5 straight exits in the first round for this team. This could be the year to break that streak but nothing is guaranteed.
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