The Caltech men's baseball team got back to business yesterday. A business all Caltech athletics, it would seem, has some experience with: snapping incredibly long and depressing losing streaks while simultaneously and not effectively (at all) flaunting the NCAA's eligibility rules. Not two years ago, the men's basketball team snapped a 310 game losing streak. The women's volleyball team broke a 56 match losing streak this year. And finally, yesterday-ensuring an overwhelmingly saturated amount of coverage—Caltech won its first baseball game since 2003. They had been winless in their last 227 going into Saturday.
After dropping the first game of its season-opening doubleheader 5-0, Caltech won the second behind a complete-game seven-inning effort by freshman Daniel Chou. Caltech hadn't won since Feb. 15, 2003.
"It was almost as if they had been there before,'' first-year coach Matthew Mark said.
Good news for those coaches concerned about a team full of content Beavers, made soft by the taste of victory: this was not a conference game. They haven't won one of those since 1988.
Update 12:10 p.m.: This story is gripping the nation. First, reader Chris has provided our new top image, a helpful screen capture from the Caltech website, celebrating the victory for the basketball baseball program.
Second, reader Ross points out that not only did Caltech finally win, but the Beavers knocked off a veritable sports mill in the nearly-accredited and hopeful NCAA member,Pacifica University. The Pacifica motto is "Sports is our emphasis; Arête is our goal." Some areas of study, for those looking to piss arête:
Sports Marketing
Sports Accounting
Sports Project Management
Sports Human Relations
Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology
Athletic Therapy
Health Science
Health Fitness
Bachelor of Arts in Legal Studies/Sports Emphasis
Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice/Sports Emphasis
And, a message from the president:
What does our seal represent? It shows the dedication and interrelationship of sports and academics. The wreath denotes the award that the first Olympic athletes received. The mortar board denotes the emphasis on academics. At Pacifica there are student-athletes. We point out that in the phrase of "student-athlete" the word student comes first. Athletics may wane with time but ones education will last forever. The helmet denotes our mascot and team name: The Gladiators. In the top right corner is the Greek word Arête. Arête is the constant drive for perfection. This drive for perfection is in both academics and athletics. Yet, one must realize that no one ever reaches pure perfection, but, remains a goal worth aiming for.