The Phoenix baseball team dropped their fourth Saturday doubleheader last weekend, when they faced Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, Fla.

The Phoenix’s batting problems were also apparent in the weekend series, with players accumulating 14 hits in 25 innings of play.

In the Sunday closer of the three-game series the Phoenix was able to hang tight with the Wildcats after tying the score at one run apiece in the top of the third inning when freshman Ernie Roselle scored after junior Mike Fratoe was hit by a pitch.

The game would stay tangled at one run until the bottom of the fourth inning, when Bethune-Cookman blew the game wide open, scoring four runs off of four hits. Justin Weeks (2-4) was accredited the loss in the contest after pitching 3.2 innings and five runs off of five hits and only sitting down two of the 19 batters he faced.

The rest of the Phoenix pitching staff could not keep the Wildcats from crossing the plate. The Elon pitchers gave up a combined eight hits and four runs in 4.1 innings of work. The bats did not get going either for the Phoenix and the team left many men on base.

"We had chances early, but we didn’t get a big hit when we needed it," coach Mike Kennedy said.

Ace Matt Garner was given the start in the contest Saturday for the Phoenix and pitched six complete innings in the first game of the day. Garner gave up four hits in the afternoon contest and gave up two earned runs and one run scored on a fielding error.

The three run cushion was all the Wildcats needed as Mumba Rivera struck out five and allowed four hits in seven innings of work to shut down the Phoenix 3-0.

In the second game of the afternoon, catcher Barry Tejeda (1-2, RBI) drove in Gary Morris for the first run of the game. Holt Montgomery drove in Brian Ingram to increase the early first inning lead to 2-0.

The lead would hold through six inning of play when John Gragg got a hold of a pitch from Elon’s Tyson Blocker to knot the game at two runs apiece. Blocker pitched six complete innings for the Phoenix, giving up five hits and two runs. But late in the ninth inning, with two outs, the Wildcats drove in the winning run off Elon right hander Adam Acosta.

Weekend series that include doubleheaders have been a weakness for the Phoenix in the month of April. The team has dropped all three double headers during the month and all of the games were played on a Saturday. But the Phoenix have soared after the weekend losses.

On April 12 the Phoenix lost to Coastal Carolina University by a combined score of 14-6 to the Chanticleers. Elon the followed up the poor performance with a three game winning streak capturing wins against the Chanticleers on April 13 (2-0), the University of North Carolina at Greensboro April 14 (6-2) and the Aggies of North Carolina A & T April 16 (11-4).

The weekend of April 19, Elon again dropped a double header to top-ranked Winthrop University, following the performance with a huge 12th inning victory over the 22nd Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina (5-4) and taking the victory from High Point University 15-14 on April 23.

Looking at the teams record after the weekend losses it would seem that the losses were a type of motivation but coach Mike Kennedy does not see it that way.

"When you gain from losses you accept a loss and I don’t accept a loss," Kennedy said. "You hope you can build and you try to get motivation from practices; the only thing you get from losses is frustration."

The team will look to continue their streak this week of acquiring wins after a disappointing weekend stand. One thing is for sure though: The Phoenix bats need to get hot.

"We are not swinging the bats at key times and we have not been successful at connecting in RBI opportunities," Kennedy said.