That said, Temple coach Craig McMurtry certainly would rather have his team get in the habit of winning instead of losing as it prepares to begin conference competition in March.
After absorbing two one-run losses in a season-opening doubleheader with Galveston on Saturday, TC learned more lessons against Wharton County on a cold, windy Wednesday at Danny Scott Sports Complex.
Run-scoring hits by Garrett Bivone, Michael DeLaRosa and Will Sandifer and relief pitcher Hunter Scott’s three scoreless innings helped the Leopards rally for a 3-2 win in the first game, but the Pioneers pounced on Jacob Bidelman for five third-inning runs and snared Chase Cline’s sixth-inning line drive to get out of a bases-loaded jam en route to an 8-3 victory in the finale.
“We’re disappointed to end up with a split, because we had a chance to sweep,” McMurtry said. “The most disappointing thing about the second game is we give up five runs in one inning, then we work our way back into it but Chase hits it right at a guy and then we give up a 3-spot.
“If it’s a two-run game (going into your last at-bat) you’ve got a shot, but if it’s a five-run game you don’t have a legitimate shot.”
With more than a month left before TC (1-3) begins Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference play, McMurtry is balancing the need to test his mostly inexperienced players with the desire for a good record.
“It’s early in the season and you want to look at the big picture, but I don’t want our guys thinking that winning is secondary,” said McMurtry, whose program has six straight NJCAA Region V Tournament berths and 123 wins from 2005-07. “We’re sitting at 1-3 and we’re still trying to find out who can play and who can’t.”
In Wednesday’s first seven-inning game, TC freshman right-hander Zach Butler allowed one hit in cruising through three innings. But after getting an out in the fourth, he ran into trouble against Wharton (3-1).
Daniel Meyer and Cody Ross hit consecutive singles and Reno Malay was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Butler then left a slider up and Bryan Minzenmeyer ripped it into the gap in left-center field for a 2-0 lead.
However, second baseman Nick Anders made a diving stab to retire Austin Kent and Butler got another groundout to escape.
Limited to one hit through four innings, the Leopards got even in the fifth. Sandifer drew a leadoff walk and was bunted to second by Travis Trial before Anders flew out. Bivone lined a single to right to drive in Sandifer, and after a Hunter Bell walk DeLaRosa hit a deep fly ball that sliced over the right fielder’s head to make it 2-2, though Bell was thrown out at home.
TC didn’t appear to have much going in the sixth as its first two men were retired. But Matt Loughrey reached second on the third baseman’s throwing error, went to third on a wild pitch and scored the go-ahead run when speedy leadoff man Sandifer took advantage of the shortstop’s double-clutch to beat out a routine grounder for a single.
Sophomore right-hander Scott (1-0) made that run stand up with a 1-2-3 seventh.
Bidelman, a 6-7, 235-pound freshman righty, was sharp early in his college debut.
But he walked John Davis to lead off the third, and the Pioneers loaded the bases with one out. Malay’s single to left made it 1-0, Bidelman hit Minzenmeyer to force in a run, and another run scored when Anders dropped a force-play throw to second.
Kent capped the five-run outburst by chopping a two-run single over the third baseman before Bidelman got a flyout and a strikeout to get out of the inning.
TC responded in its half of the third, scoring three runs. Payton Wisener and Loughrey scored when Sandifer’s single rolled under the right fielder’s glove for a two-base error, and Trial’s grounder brought in Sandifer to make it 5-3.
Courtney Behrend escaped a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the fourth and breezed through the next two innings, giving the Leopards a shot to rally in the sixth.
Singles by DeLaRosa and Pedro Maldonado and Bell’s two-out walk loaded the bases for pinch hitter Cline, who hammered a liner but saw it snared by the first baseman to deny the threat.
Wharton padded its lead with a three-run seventh against Tim Laine, using two two-out hits and back-to-back errors, then Kurt Leer closed out the Leopards to split the doubleheader.
Temple will play perennial power San Jacinto in a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday in Houston, with Tristan Gaines and Daniel Meadows scheduled to be the Leopards’ starting pitchers.
gwille@temple-telegram.com
