Alex Kreitman - Stealing signs

After taking over the top spot in the Southern Conference last weekend, Elon University has lost three straight games.

The Phoenix (28-11 overall, 12-3 conference) lost to Western Carolina, High Point and Coastal Carolina, matching its longest losing streak of the season.

This isn’t the best time for Elon to be entering what might its toughest three-game set of the year with a trip to Charleston, SC on tap. Elon begins a series with College of Charleston on Friday.

The Cougars have owned the SoCon in recent years except in 2006 when the Phoenix claimed the regular season crown. College of Charleston did go on to win the conference tournament.

College of Charleston (25-12, 8-4) is coming off a three-game sweep last weekend against Furman and for the first time in a long time, it was the Cougars doing the sweeping. The Paladins took three straight in a major upset. Elon swept Furman earlier this year.

The rest of the season has a lot of road work for the Phoenix, but the competition isn’t all that stiff after College of Charleston. Leaving with a series victory this weekend is crucial for Elon’s hopes at winning another regular season conference title.

Elon plays host to Wake Forest next week at Latham Park in non-conference action which would indeed be a resume builder after taking a hit with the loss to 14-22 High Point on Tuesday.

If Elon can finish strong, an at-large big in the NCAA Tournament is a strong possibility.

While on the subject of baseball, my favorite sport, I should mention Thursday night’s marathon. The Colorado Rockies defeated the San Diego Padres in 22 innings. What a long game, but the more impressive part is the score, especially since neither team scored a run until the 14^th inning.

The game didn’t end until 1:21 a.m. and was the longest game in the majors in 15 years. Petco Park was nearly empty when the game finally ended after 6 hours and 16 minutes.

I can only imagine how horrible it must feel to lose a game after 22 innings. But it must feel just as good to win.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 12:10 pm and is filed under Baseball, college baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.