Sports Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, April 12, 2012
Geist pitches and hits to lead BKW baseball
By Jordan J. Michael
GREEN ISLAND –– After pitching a no-hitter in the Bulldogs’ first game on April 4, senior Ben Geist made a huge impact with his bat on Monday against Heatly. Geist is also in the process of getting all his teammates to shave their heads like Mohawks.
Geist smashed the first pitch he saw from Heatly’s Nate Miller in the third inning. Two runners were on base and he ended up crossing home plate because the ball was hit so deep to center field. After making the 3 RBI inside-the-park homerun, he threw off his helmet to greet his Berne-Knox-Westerlo teammates.
In the fifth inning, the Bulldogs scored a whopping 10 runs, and Geist drove in three more runs with a base-clearing triple. It’s been quite the first week for Geist and BKW.
Heatly was a sub-par team, making numerous errors on defense while struggling to get anything going on offense. BKW’s sharp hits were too much for Heatly’s inexperienced defense.
“We came out on top,” said Geist after the 13-to-2 win. “Sometimes, you’ll just lay down against a weaker team and start doing things wrong, too. It was a slow game, but we got together and made fundamental plays.”
The fifth inning seemed like it would never end, but Tyler Sigond grounded out to the pitcher to stop the bleeding for Heatly. The overcast sky matched Heatly’s gray mood.
“So far, so good,” said BKW’s brand-new coach, Bobby Patrick. He played baseball for the Bulldogs before graduating in 2007. “We’re hitting the ball very well, but our fundamentals need some work. Physically, we’re doing very well.”
Patrick told The Enterprise that the mental characteristics of the game would be the difference maker for BKW. The team has a “no limits” theory for the 2012 season.
“Once you’ve set limits, you’ve given yourself an opportunity to go no further in life,” said Patrick. “So, I’m trying to instill this no-limits mentality. That way, these players can do anything they put their minds to.”
For example, take Geist’s no-hitter against Mayfield on April 4. Geist went out and threw strikes, and his defense made plays behind him.
“That’ll usually be enough to win a ball game, but it came out as a no-hitter,” said Geist, who credited catcher Taylor O’Connor for calling good pitches. “I never threw a no-hitter before, so it was definitely exciting.”
And, it was quite the way to start a baseball season. BKW might feel a little spoiled by Geist, a player that Patrick says leads by example. Patrick just recently found that out because he admits to knowing nothing about the team before he started coaching a month ago.
“It’s almost a good thing to know nothing because I started them off on things that they need to work on without me having some sort of biased opinion of what they used to do,” said Patrick. “It’s not only a learning process for the team; it’s a learning process for me, too.”
Not all of BKW’s players had Mohawks on Monday, but Geist said the team would be finishing up their new haircuts this week. This has been Geist’s little pet peeve for a few years now.
“Some of the guys are hesitant, but it’s just hair, so it’ll grow back,” Geist said. “Plus, Mohawks are cool.”
Can Geist convince Patrick to get the new hair-do?
“Ahhh…yeah…I’ll have to,” said Patrick. “He’s going to make me get one. I mean, this team already made me sign up for a Twitter account.”