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While the head coach of the Drew Baseball team, Vince Masco, may not admit he has been surprised with the stunning play of his squad this past week, no one could have predicted a week that saw the Rangers go 5-2.

Prior to last Friday's game against the University of Scranton, Drew's conference record was 2-6. However, since then, the Rangers have managed to win four straight Freedom Conference games, lifting them to 6-6 in the conference and tying them for fourth place. Drew's two losses this week came at the hands of Moravian College and Rutgers-Newark, but the Rangers beat non-conference foe Ramapo College.

With a week kicked off by a three-game sweep of Scranton over the weekend, the Rangers have put themselves in a position to make the conference playoffs.

Masco remarked that this recent surge hasn't caught him off guard one bit. "The main difference now is we are driving guys in rather than leaving them on base," he said. "Nothing has changed since I always believed this team could make the playoffs; they just need to keep winning," Masco said.

One of the major forces Drew has on their side is sophomore pitcher Justin Distler. With a seven inning performance last Friday against Scranton that saw him give up only 3 earned runs with seven strike outs, Distler added another win to his resume.

Then on Monday against Delaware Valley College, he came into the game to relieve sophomore Ed Woodrow, who had only allowed three runs in the first seven innings. In that performance Distler pitched a total of five innings, giving up only four hits on one run while striking out an amazing six batters, en-route to an 8-6 win. Meanwhile, Distler picked up another win, lifting his record to 5-1 on the season.

Masco was not shy to praise Distler's stellar season, which is highlighted by an earned run average of 1.89 along with 37 strikeouts in only 38 innings of work.

"Justin is pitching well for us," Masco said. "He put in a lot of extra work during the preseason by doing plyometrics daily with our trainer Chris Ryan. Also, he is gaining a lot of confidence, and confidence breeds success."

However, it hasn't been just the pitching that has the Rangers on the winning track. Junior Joe Henrikson, a Second Team All-Conference selection last season, powered his way through the week in which he hit two home runs on last Friday against Scranton and two triples in the 8-3 loss to Moravian on Sunday.

All in all, his performance at the bat was an impressive .444 batting average. Also, sophomore second baseman Larry Canales made his presence known as he bettered his team leading batting average with an impressive .500 average for the week, including three doubles. Canales's ground out in the 12th inning against Delaware Valley was good enough to drive in Henrikson, which later proved to be the game winning run.

"The team is playing well. Quite a few players are now contributing," Masco said. The latter statement is probably the biggest reason why the Rangers are winning in such high volume.

With the season nearing its end, the Rangers are entering into the stretch where each game is a must-win. Masco mentioned that the final six of seven games are conference games that will be vital in determining the conference playoffs.

Today, Drew travels to Wilkes University to play at 3:30 p.m., and will host them for a double header tomorrow at 1 p.m.

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