By Alexander Maier ’15, Sports Editor
The CCDS Varsity Baseball Team finished the season with a record of 11-10. The team proved that they are extremely competitive with the elite teams of the league: CHCA and Cincinnati Christian.
Coming into the season, the baseball team felt strong enough to continue its respectable record. But, no one expected such a leap in performance. The team looked and played much better this year than last year. Last year the CCDS team finished 9-16 overall with a 3-11 record in our division. This year they were 11-10 overall and 7-6 in our division. The team also scored the same number of runs as last year and allowed fewer runs this year. Both years, the Indians scored an amazing 121 runs. This year, the Indians allowed 83 runs to be scored against them, compared to 213 runs allowed last year. Even Head Coach Tim Dunn acknowledged that “We have had very good pitching from all four of our pitchers.” This year all of the starting pitchers are ranked in the top 21 in the MVC: Cameron Alldred is ranked 8th, Luke Hall is ranked 13th, Austin Harden is ranked 19th, and Austin Richey is ranked 21st. Last year only one of the pitchers, Austin Richey, ranked in the top 20.
One nerve-wracking game against CHCA on Monday afternoon, April 29th was particularly memorable. Going into the game, the team was nervous; they were aware CHCA was a formidable opponent. CHCA started out strong, and didn’t allow a run until the 4th inning. Country Day, on the other hand, started out slow, allowing 6 runs through 4 innings. Sophomore pitcher, Cameron Alldred, pitched well, but the defense and offense were having hard time. Thankfully, in the fourth inning, the bats came alive, and CCD scored three runs—now only three runs behind CHCA. Feeling newly motivated, the defense went out and posted a shutout inning. The top of the 5th inning rolled around, and Austin Richey started off well with a single. Next, Cameron Alldred stepped into the batter’s box ready for a rally. He quickly went down in the count, 2-2. On the 5th pitch, Cameron smashed a ball to opposite field. He raced out of the batter’s box and headed for first. Rounding first and heading for second, he looked towards the outfield to see where the ball was. He noticed the CHCA right fielder missed the ball and was racing to get it. Running out of steam, Cameron decided to push himself for one more base, and before you knew it, he slid in safely at third. The CCD bench jumped up and down cheering for Cameron since he had an RBI triple. Cameron later scored on a two out single, and the team narrowed the margin to a one point deficit, 6-5. After the two-run 5th inning, CHCA came back to score two runs leading 8-5. To the disappointment of the fans, CHCA put in their closing pitcher for the 6th and 7th inning which secured a victory for them and meant a loss for Country Day. Although the Indians went home without a victory, they played a great game against one of the toughest opponents in the league.
The Indians finished the season with a loss against Fayetteville, May 22nd, with a score of 3-1, in the Sectional Championship game interrupted several times by heavy rain. Even though the Indians lost the final game, it was nothing to hang their heads about. The team performed wonderfully throughout the entire
season, living up to and exceeding the coaches’ expectations.
