Rob Groeschell is off to a very similar start to what he got to begin the 2014 baseball season. He is near the top of the team in batting average and on-base percentage, but more importantly he is producing runs, and important ones, for the Eagles.
He has hit from the nine spot over the course of Biola's first four games, in which the team has posted a 2-2 overall record. In that nine spot he has done a lot of damage to the opposing pitchers' earned run averages.
Groeschell is tied for the team lead in homeruns, recording one in the ninth inning of Saturday's 9-7 game one loss to Vanguard, and he is running away with the team lead in RBI with seven, all coming in this week's four games.
He recorded two RBI that had more impact than his other five, as they represented the game-tying and game-winning runs in Tuesday's season-opener, helping Biola begin its season 1-0. He also had two other RBI early in that game, and his other three came courtesy the three-run homerun on Saturday.
When he's not crushing the ball or recording putouts in center field, Groeschell seems to be stepping into a more pronounced pitching role with the Eagles this season. He's already got one shutout inning recorded this year, striking out two in a near-perfect inning against Vanguard in a 4-1 loss on Friday.
Groeschell is hitting .308, slugging a team-leading .615 and reaching base in 43.8 percent of his at bats to this point of the season. He and the Eagles return to Eagles Diamond on Jan. 27 for a doubleheader with Antelope Valley.
