GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - The Golden Eagles have scheduled a two game set with Grace College of Indiana on Tuesday, March 9 as they look to fill out a non-conference schedule before beginning WHAC play on Saturday, March 20. Cornerstone will host Grace for a 3 p.m. double-header with both games being seven innings. There will be live video/stats/audio available for the games with links available below.
Opponent: Grace College (Ind.)
Place: Grand Rapids, Mich. (De Witt Field)
Time: 3 p.m. DH
Live Video
Live Stats
COVID-19 Baseball Fan Policy
Cornerstone is welcoming both home and visiting fans for baseball but with limited seating and a required screening form to be filled out upon arrival. Fans are required to wear masks and are encouraged to bring their own chairs to space out around the facility. Fans will not be allowed inside Central Hall to view the game with only essential personel allowed inside the building.
Future Scheduling
As northern states weather and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues, Cornerstone is continuing to schedule as many non-conference games as possible within the area to fill out the schedule. Right now CU has nothing official for the weekend, but Head Coach
Chuck Lowitzki are currently working on potential scheduling to get some games in this weekend. Stay tuned to cugoldeneagles.com and @CornerstoneBAS on social media for more information on what the schedule will look like the rest of the week.
Last Week Recap
The Golden Eagles hosted Saint Xavier for four games to open the season this past weekend and won three of four, including two walk-off winners on Friday. A very young Golden Eagle roster that has just six players who have played a conference game on the varsity roster, showed some fight and toughness in the series as they trailed 6-0 in game one and came back to win 7-6, and trailed 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh in game two and came back to win 3-2.
Daniel Freeman and
Austin Hurt were the walk-off heroes in the games.
Wenzel Power
Jordan Wenzel was able to show off his ability at the plate for the first time, as the redshirt freshman hit .571 in the first weekend with eight hits in 14 at bats. In 22 games last year down in Georgia and Florida before the season was shutdown, Wenzel hit .411 as a true freshman. To put these numbers into perspective, the Golden Eagles all-time best batting average came from
Brady Eeles at .381 who played just two seasons at CU. The next best is Travis Gordon at .324 as he played four seasons at CU. Wenzel scored six runs and stole four bases so far this season as well.
Bullpen Arms
The Golden Eagles bullpen was outstanding to begin the year, as eight different arms appeared out of the pen and just one earned run was given up.
Michael Foster led the way with 4.2 innings pitched without a run scored, while
Jared Riley after a change in a statistically ruling was the only reliever to give up an earned run, but he also struck out six batters in his three innings pitched.
History vs. Grace
Cornerstone and Grace have met three times in the past all in Lake Myrtle, Florida on neutral ground and CU won all three of those contests. CU played a double-header against the Lancers in 2018 and won 4-2 and 14-4 and played just a single game in 2019 that they won 4-3.
Scouting Grace
The Lancers have gotten off to a solid start in 2021 with a 6-4 record and a 3-1 conference record. They began conference play last weekend and took three of four from Bethel at home. Grace is a team with a lot of speed as they rank 14th in the NAIA with six total triples as Houston Haney has two of those, and they already have 15 stolen bases as a team in 10 games. The starting pitching is also a strength for the Lancers as three of the five players who have started a game for them have an ERA of 3.75 or better. Kameron Koch is nearly averaging a strikeout an inning as well, with 14 in 15 innings pitched.
