Fresh off club wins against Dodgertown West, the Caltech baseball team (0-3) started Friday with high hopes of ending their 23-year SCIAC losing streak when they stepped onto the diamond to face the La Sierra Golden Eagles. Their hopes were quickly dashed, however, as the Beavers were manhandled 23-3 by the previously winless Golden Eagles squad (1-7).

The Beavers failed by ignoring the fundamentals.

“To win,” said Beavers coach John D’Auria, “you’ve got to pitch, hit, and catch. Today, we didn’t hit or catch.”

Through the first few innings of Friday’s game, the Beavers were able to hang step by step with the Golden Eagles. Freshman Rob Rosenberg anchored the pitching staff, throwing a solid game. Senior Mike Comstock relieved Rosenberg midway through the contest. La Sierra’s first points came off a home run off Rosenberg in the top of the second that sailed over the left field wall.

It was not until the third inning, however, that the situation turned sour. In the top of the third, second baseman Shawn Surdyk, senior, was clipped above the lip by a rogue ground ball and was subsequently discharged from the game. He was later hospitalized, undergoing restorative plastic surgery.

Upon resuming play, La Sierra proceeded to go on a run streak which would not be stopped by Tech until the ninth inning. La Sierra racked up 23 runs against the Beavers, a streak which went unanswered until the bottom of the ninth when Caltech scored its only 3 runs. The Beavers played an error prone game, allowing La Sierra to score a number of unearned runs throughout the streak. Junior and team captain Kevin Noertker was beamed by a pitch in the bottom of the ninth and proceeded to score the first of three Caltech runs in that inning.

“We made errors, we just need to put the bat on the ball,” said Noertker. “Routine things kill us. We just need to go back to basics.”

The Beavers fared slightly better in a Saturday double-header against a UC-Santa Barbara club team, where they lost 11-1 and18-9.

Caltech will travel to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Friday looking for its first SCIAC victory since 1994, and Noertker remains optimistic the Beavers will get it. “I think this team is better than any we’ve had in the last few years. As long as we’ve got a defense to put behind our pitching, we should win games.”.