After winning five straight games, Elon baseball has hit another bump in the road, dropping their last three contests to Miami and High Point.

Miami was the No. 11 team in the country last week, but dropped to No. 12 thanks to senior Robert Rodebaugh and his 3-for-5 performance with five RBIs in Friday’s nightcap. The Hurricanes then took advantage of the top four Elon hitters going a combined 3-for-32 with a 17-4 rout on Saturday and 6-3 victory on Sunday. It was an ugly start to what has turned into a three-game losing streak for the Phoenix.

“We need to be more consistent as a team,” senior Chris Vasami said. “We need to compete day to day and on every pitch.”

Struggles continued for the Phoenix with a 10-4 loss to High Point on Tuesday and pitching was at the center of the problem. Aside from the series against Saint Joseph’s, head coach Mike Kennedy says there is a “starting pitching bug.”

“Our starters have gone no more than four complete innings,” Kennedy said. “We’re throwing more first pitch balls than strikes right now and at this level it’s difficult to pitch behind in the count.”

Conference play is still a couple of weeks away, but the Phoenix will face good teams all season, one of which will come into town this weekend. Princeton has a solid squad and is predicted to finish near the top of the Ivy League.

It will be the Tigers’ season opener, but they still have senior Christian Staehley that will serve as one obstacle. Staehley was 5-2 with a 2.57 ERA and named the top pitcher in the Ivy League in 2006.

Rodebaugh, voted a preseason All-American by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, is currently batting only .235 with one home run and bash brother Chris Vasami fell into a slump against Miami after going 9 for 12 with 11 RBIs in the series against Saint Joseph’s.

Coastal Carolina cracked the top 25 this week so all of Elon’s losses were at the hands of ranked opponents but a turnaround is in order if the Phoenix wishes to compete the rest of the season. Junior Jesse Lewter knows what he would like to see.

“We need to be more aggressive as pitchers,” Lewter said. “We seem to be a little timid. We just need to trust what we have.”

The team doesn’t want to compare their performance to last year’s success because it’s a new season and they think they can compete anyway. They don’t need previous performances to dictate their upcoming schedule. Even so, Kennedy thinks their early kinks are simple problems.

“We’re not playing good baseball,” Kennedy said. “Our production is not good and we are giving up runs.”

He knows it may take time but too much time may leave the Phoenix in a deep hole.

As a team, Elon is batting .283 and the pitching staff currently holds a 6.08 ERA. These numbers don’t bode well since opponents are batting .317 and keeping Phoenix bats tame with a 5.14 ERA.

Sophomore Steven Hensley is slated to start the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader and junior Zach Booker will take the mound in the second game

Editor Emeritus: Nathan Rode - 03/01/07