The Waynesburg University baseball team believed they were the better squad entering the Bethany matchup.

“We have to think that we are going to be the better team in the series,” these were the words uttered by junior pitcher Mason Miller and senior infielder Tyler Reis in regards to the Bethany series.

For the most part, the Waynesburg baseball team was the better team in the series.

Coming off of a thrilling 14-6 extra innings victory over Bethany, the Yellow Jackets split a double header the following day with the Bison.

The first half of the twin bill was dominated by pitching.

Junior Mason Miller and Bethany senior Ken Ryan allowed a combined six hits between their opposition, but ultimately the game was decided in the first inning.

Senior Mitch Nordstrom doubled and later came around to score off of a Jonny Kutchman single. Those crucial hits accounted for exactly half of Waynesburg’s four hits in game one.

Undoubtedly, the story of game one was the outstanding performance of Mason Miller. He pitched a complete-game shutout and struck out a career-high 15 batters.

“Any time we have Mason Miller on the mound, he gives us a huge advantage in the outcome of the game,” said head coach Mike Humiston. “I think [Miller] is just going to get stronger. He is going to be a huge part of our success this year, and he gives us the best chance of being successful in every game he pitches.”

The bounce-back performance from Miller came after dropping his first loss of the year to arch-rival and PAC-leading Washington & Jefferson.

“I think [bouncing back] sums it up pretty good,” Miller said. “It’s tough knowing that one bad inning could potentially lose you the game, but I was just matching [Ryan] and he was matching me.”

Despite the superb effort defensively, the same can’t be said for the offense. Waynesburg registered just four hits in game one and could not find a way to give Miller more run support.

“It is a lot easier to pitch knowing your team can score runs for you than to go out there and not get any run support,” Humiston said.

In game two, the opposite problem caused issues for the Yellow Jackets. The Bethany bats jumped on Waynesburg, leading to an early 5-0 deficit after just two innings. The Bison would only pile on from there in the 14-4 thumping in game two.

“We didn’t have the pitching, so we’ve got to get better in that aspect,” Humiston said. “We can’t have the same guys going to the bump every game and expect lightning in a bottle.”

That lightning struck senior Brandon Lawless, who started and took the loss on the hill for the Yellow Jackets after pitching just one inning and gave up the game’s first five runs, all of which were earned.

While pitching was a strong suit in game one, Humiston still sees some room for improvement for the team as a whole.

“We had 16 fly-ball outs in the double header against Bethany, which is not good,” Humiston said. “I’d like to think that every game we play is a team effort, and we lost as a team in the second game.”