The baseball team traveled to Winter Haven, Florida to open the 2019 season over the spring break at the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational. The team was tabbed with playing 10 games over a five-day period.

Coming into the beginning of the season, the Yellow Jackets were picked to finish sixth in the Presidents’ Athletic Conference.

While the team was in the sunshine state, they competed against teams from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. The Jackets also concluded their trip with an overall record of 6-4 acquiring key wins against top caliber teams like Worcester Polytechnic Institute and John Carroll University.

“We had some really big wins for us during our trip,” said head baseball coach Mike Humiston. “With these wins, we also gave one or two games away that we should have won, this is something we need to improve moving forward.”

During this trip, the Yellow Jackets split four of the five double headers that were played, including the ones with Penn State Altoona, WPI, Emerson College and John Carroll University. Coming back with a positive record was also something that the teams hasn’t done since the 2017 season.

“Coming back with a positive record is a big confidence boost for us,” Humiston said. “This will help us once we get back home and start to play our games at our field.”

During the trip, the team started off day one splitting a twin bill against Penn State Altoona.

Game one started off with a strong performance from junior pitcher Mason Miller as he pitched a seven inning complete game shutout with 15 strikeouts and only allowing three hits.

“It was the best game I’ve ever had,” said Miller. “I had two games in high school where I had 14 strikeouts, but this was a completely different moment.”

Everyone in the starting lineup added at least one hit and at least one run scored in the win. Seven players also logged at least one RBI as well.

In game two, things didn’t go as well for Waynesburg as Altoona got out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Then they added seven more runs in the second inning to take a 9-0 lead.

Junior catcher John Przybylinski drove in his team’s only run late in the contest with a sacrifice fly before Altoona locked things down to round out the bottom of the inning.

Freshman Joe Sabolek took to the mound in his first college start for the Jackets, Sabolek got the loss in the matchup as he gave up six runs over 1 1/3 innings of work.

On day two of the trip, Waynesburg played Worcester Polytechnic Institute in a doubleheader that the Yellow Jackets split, WPI winning game one 4-1, and Waynesburg winning the second, 3-1.

In game one, the only run that was scored by the Yellow Jackets was in the sixth inning on an RBI single by senior left fielder Tyler Godwin that brought senior third basemen Tyler Reis across the plate. Waynesburg couldn’t get the win in game one as junior pitcher Jonny Kutchman was given the loss.

In game two, Waynesburg got on the board early as Przybylinski hit a sacrifice fly into right field that brought Reis home and gave Waynesburg a 1-0 lead. The game deciding run came in the third inning when junior second baseman Justin Buberl scored on a wild pitch, and in the fifth, freshman Tyler Woodrow would add an insurance run on a wild pitch. The winning pitcher of game two was senior Ty Wickline as he went 4 1/3 innings with one strikeout and senior reliever Colten Uzzell came in to close out the latter half of the twin-bill.

After rain moved in Tuesday morning, Waynesburg would get the first sweep of the season as they defeated Hilbert College the following evening, 16-7 and 7-3.

Throughout the duration of the spring trip, things seemed to be quiet ever since Waynesburg’s game against Penn State Altoona. That was the case until Woodrow put together a stellar performance in both games going 4 for 7, with one home run, one double, two singles and adding 6 RBIs.

“This was something that I didn’t really expect from myself,” said Woodrow. “I didn’t know that I had power like that, so I guess things just seem to start to work for me when I came to Waynesburg, so I’m excited for what is to come.”

In the opener, senior Nate Gearhart came in relief and got the win for Waynesburg. Senior Brandon Lawless got the start and threw six strong innings, where he allowed three runs on seven hits and two walks in the win.

The next day, Waynesburg split another doubleheader with Emerson College, losing game one 4-0, but bouncing back in game two 15-6. The Yellow Jackets couldn’t get things going as they were held to only three hits total in the first game.

However, it was a different story in game two where Waynesburg dominated as, once again, Woodrow would come a double short of completing the cycle.

Sabolek also bounced back to get his first collegiate win on the mound posting five innings in which he gave up just one run on four hits, five walks and four strikeouts in the start.

To round out the team’s trip to the sunshine state, Waynesburg won one game of its last doubleheader against John Carroll University, losing game one 10-3, but coming back and winning game two, 2-1. In the win, Waynesburg scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning to take the lead and win the game.

Once again, Miller would throw a complete game for the Jackets, and moved his record to 2-0, only allowing one earned run over two starts during the trip to Florida.

“I thought we had a great trip,” said Humiston. “We found some things out and we had a lot of positives, I’m really excited to see how we fare in PAC play once we get back home.”