Streak saves Bees' season

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By Eric Page | Monday, May 07, 2007 | No comments posted

There often is a turning point in the season of a championship team — a fork in the road where one path leads to success, the other to failure.

For some it’s a game, for others a series.

For the St. Ambrose baseball team, it was a single inning that changed its fate and kick-started a run from a sub-.500 record to a Midwest Classic Conference championship.

Down five runs in the final inning of a game against Grand View College last month and closing in on their sixth consecutive conference loss, the Bees rallied for a victory. They have won 11 of 13 since, including a 10-0 mark in the league, to wrap up the school’s first conference title since 2003.

“The guys really could have packed it in there, but they went out and won out. We won 10 in a row,” St. Ambrose coach Jim Callahan said. “There is no question we’re hot going into the postseason. It’s sometimes more important how you win the league than just winning the league.”

The Bees (24-16, 20-6 MCC) rolled in their final 10 conference games. After that April 15 win over Grand View, they swept Ashford and took four games each from William Penn and Viterbo, winning by average of six runs.

They’ll carry that momentum into a matchup with Olivet Nazarene University in the NAIA Region VII Tournament at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Copeland Park in La Crosse, Wis.

A regional championship would send Ambrose to a super regional May 17-19, where the Bees would vie for a trip to the NAIA World Series in Lewiston, Idaho, on May 26 through June 2.

Ambrose twice has reached the World Series under Callahan, in 1994 and ’96. With the No. 1 seed in the region and the team playing with supreme confidence, the pieces appear to be in place for another tournament run.

“It’s been our goal since the beginning of the season to get to the World Series and win the whole thing. It’s just one step at a time,” said Ben Irmen, a sophomore outfielder out of Davenport Assumption who transferred to St. Ambrose after playing a year at Northern Iowa.

Irmen, who bats leadoff, has started every game and ranks second on the team with a .405 batting average. He is one of nine players from area high schools on the Bees’ roster.

Junior pitcher Daniel Cutler, another Assumption product, leads the team with 36 strikeouts. The right-hander is 3-2 in seven starts with a 2.28 ERA.

“Talent-wise, there is no doubt, we’re a very talented squad,” Callahan said. “We have some strong pitching. The thing that makes me think we have a solid chance is the chemistry is very strong. That’s what it takes when you face teams that have good talent, too.”

Talent and chemistry aside, the trick for the Bees will be to sustain the success of the past month. They did, after all, start the conference season 9-1 before losing five straight. Will the lessons learned serve to avoid another letdown?

“We’re a really good baseball team,” Irmen said. “We were winning a ton of games and having fun, and then all of a sudden we were losing. It was more of a reality check — hey, we can lose games. We just got in a little funk and then got it back together and got the wheels spinning again.

“We didn’t give up. And that’s the most important thing.”

Eric Page can be contacted at (563) 383-2277 or epage@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at www.qctimes.com.

Local ties

The St. Ambrose baseball team won the Midwest Classic Conference championship and is the No. 1 seed at this week’s NAIA Region VII Tournament in La Crosse, Wis. Nine players from area high schools are on the team:

Player, year             Position      Hometown

Kyle Merten, fr.          Catcher      Bettendorf

Ben Irmen, so.           Outfield     Davenport

Daniel Cutler, jr.         Pitcher       Davenport

Brunson Grothus, jr.      Infield       Davenport

Travis Zeimet, jr.         Pitcher       Eldridge

Chris Wall, fr.           Pitcher       Eldridge

Manny Rivera, fr.         Pitcher       Geneseo

Casey Raisbeck, jr.        Outfield     Orion

Dustin Feldman, sr.       Catcher      West Liberty

Evan Cooling, so.         Pitcher       Wilton