In all sports, mistakes can be costly – but in baseball, errors can lead to more mistakes as teams press to be perfect.
For the Cardinals on Sunday, the 2011 South Central Regional Championship was a classic case of a team putting themselves in an uphill battle that they couldn't come back from as early mistakes put UIW in a hole that they couldn't come back from against University of Central Missouri.
The Mules, the No. 2 seed in the regional tournament held at V.J. Keefe Memorial Stadium at St. Mary's University, won the game, 7-0, and ended the Cardinals' season.
After Ethan Lutz started the game by striking out the side for Incarnate Word (37-18), Central Missouri scored a run in the top of the second inning after the leadoff batter got on base thanks to a dropped fly ball in the outfield. The runner would later score by stealing home and making it 1-0 in favor of the Mules.
Later errors only piled on the runs for UCM (49-8) and of the seven runs to come home for Central Missouri, not a single one was earned. The Mules' starting pitcher, Matt Curtis, pitched all nine innings and earned a four-hit shutout victory.
“This was the worst game we played all year,” head coach Danny Heep said, flatly, after everything was said and done. “We couldn't catch the ball, field the ball, run bunt plays, hit the ball… and we made mental mistakes. We just couldn't pull it together.”
After losing their regional opener to St. Mary's University, UIW played two more games with the possibility of a loss meaning the end of their season – defeating Tarleton State and Southeastern Oklahoma State University to advance to the championship game.
Now, with the season over, the Cardinals will graduate a good portion of their starting lineup and their record-holding closing pitcher.
Field players gone to graduation will be first baseman Matt Roohan, second baseman Leroy Urbina, shortstop Matt Flores, third baseman Mike De La Rosa, catchers Daniel Qualls and Josiah Rodriguez, left fielder Steven Vidaurri, and designated hitter Jackson Woodruff.
Roohan ends the season with 92 hits – third-most all-time in a season for a Cardinal batter – and earned an All-Lone Star Conference Second Team award. He also led the team in RBIs with 62, which puts him fifth, all-time in Cardinal history. He was ranked nationally in RBI categories at the end of the regular season, including No. 12 for total RBIs, No. 14 for RBIs-per-game and No. 5 for total hits.
De La Rosa, in his only season as a Cardinal after transferring to UIW from Lamar University, earned an All-LSC Second Team award and was ranked No. 22 in the nation at the end of the season in home run average-per-game and No. 28 in RBIs-per-game.
Vidaurri finished the season 2nd on the team in batting average (.411) and earned All-Lone Star Conference First Team and LSC All-Academic Team honors. He started in left field every game for Incarnate Word.
Matt Flores and Leroy Urbina were two of four players sharing time at shortstop and second base for Incarnate Word in their senior years, Flores ending with a .306 average and Urbina a .277.
Also splitting time at a position were catchers Josiah Rodriguez and Daniel Qualls, the start depending on if the Cardinals were facing a left- or right-handed pitcher. Qualls hit three home runs and batted .328 while Rodriguez batted .338 and had a homer and 15 RBI.
Woodruff spent his senior year as a designated hitter for UIW, hitting .320 with 10 doubles and 3 homers.
On the pitching staff, closer Elroy Urbina will not be with the team in 2012. He had a Cardinal-record 13 saves this season (13 in his career, making him 2nd-most all-time) and appeared in 33 games in his senior year – also a Cardinals single-season record.
The loss of such a high number of starters and role players is something Heep and his staff has to prepare for every season.
“When you lose a big class like (this season's), it's hard to go out and get eight or nine guys,” Heep explained. “It's difficult for a private school to re-stock the roster because the cost of education is so much higher than you'd find at a state school. When we recruit and when we spend money, we have to get guys who are going to pan out.”
And as far as next year's team, Heep already knows the Cardinals will have to lean heavily on their pitching staff – which only loses Urbina – as the bats may struggle to put up the numbers they have in recent years.
“We'll make those adjustments. I mean, we return (Kirk) Jewasko and (Jorge) Guarneros and if we have to lean on them next year like we did this season, well – that worked out pretty good for us this season.”
NOTE: Steven Vidaurri and John Zule were both named to the All-South Central Regional Tournament Team… Incarnate Word is now 0-2, all-time, against the University of Central Missouri.
