On the sunny afternoon of April 15th, the Bison baseball team took the field against the Perry Pirates for the first home game of the 2016 season.

The home opener isn’t usually that big of a deal, but they were originally scheduled to start at home on March 29th against Cleveland Central Catholic.

Aside from a 12-6 victory at Brooklyn on March 30th, every game up until April 13th had been canceled.

The causes of the cancellations included inclement weather like rain and snow, bad field conditions and the field simply not being ready in time.

Thus, the players were eager to take the field in front of a decent crowd.

They were familiar with each other, because the Bison had traveled to Perry for a game just two days earlier.

Perry came away with a 6-0 win, so naturally, Beachwood was looking for revenge against the Pirates the second time around, this time with home-field advantage.

The game started off relatively quietly, but Perry threatened to gain a lead in the third inning by loading the bases with no outs.

However, Bison pitcher junior Josh Bialosky helped his team get out of the jam, and the inning ended with junior catcher Aaron Siegel connecting with junior first baseman Aden Stern to pick off a runner on first who was leading off.

The two teams battled for a few more innings, and no runs were surrendered.

It was a defensive battle.

Bialosky eventually was worn down, as the Pirates scored two runs in the 6th inning and added one in the seventh.

The Bison could not return the favor, and fell 3-0, although there was a lot of improvement from their first meeting with Perry.

On Saturday, however, there were two chances for the Bison to redeem themselves, as West Geauga came to BHS for a double-header.

The Bison dominated the first game by run-ruling the Wolverines 12-2, as Stern pitched a complete game with six strikeouts.

Stern attributed his success to his composure during the game.

“I didn’t have my best stuff, or control, in the game, but I was able to stay cool and calm when I made a mistake and kept my confidence,” he said.

“Knowing that I had a great team behind me made me very comfortable pitching my game, so that helped me as well,” he added.

The Bison sent West G home winless after completing the sweep with a 16-2 win in game #2.

Although the weekend started out on a bad note, it was turned around with a 2-1 finish. This should help the Bison with four games in the upcoming week.

The team learned many valuable lessons from the weekend, too.

“We know that defense is our strength, so we need to make the opposing pitchers throw more and wear them out. Working on zone hitting is important for us, and that depends on what the count is,” he said.

The games also showed the Bison what they were capable of in the future.

“We will go far as long as we don’t get too full of ourselves and listen to our coaching staff while working together as a team instead of focusing on ourselves,” Stern explained.

With a loaded upcoming schedule due to the cancellation streak, the team will learn a lot more about themselves in the coming weeks.