Despite rapping out 11 hits the Golden Eagles couldn't quite match the batting of Bethany College, as the Bison scattered 20 hits in a 17-8 win over KSU Tusc at Bethany Park Field.
The hosts scored five runs in the second inning belting out two doubles, a triple and two singles to jump on top 5-0. The added a pair of tallies in the bottom of the third to take a 7-0 lead before the navy and gold answered in the top of the third inning.
Caleb Salgado and Joshua Leonard started the fourth inning off with back-to-back singles to right field followed by a Caleb Campbell walk to load the bases for KSU Tusc. All three crossed the plate with Salgado forced home on a walk to Andrew Powell, while Leonard scored on a wild pitch and Campbell came home on an infield ground out to cut the deficit to 7-3.
A walk, double and homerun over the leftfield fence scored three more Bethany runs in the bottom of the inning upped the score to 8-3.
Singles by the Golden Eagles in each of the fifth and sixth innings went for naught, while the Bison plated three more runs to take an 13-3 lead putting Eagles backs to the wall to avoid the ten-run mercy by scoring at least a single run in the top of the seventh.
The Eagles rallied with five runs and five hits in the top of the seventh inning as Salgado, Braydon Maine and Scott Sauernheimer all singled and scored a run. Leonard grounded out to bring home another as Campbell (HBP) and Kyle Shockley both scored on RBI singles by Powell and Brogan Burcher to cut the lead to five runs at 13-8.
Bethany hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning and added two more on three safeties in the eighth to seal a 17-8 win. They failed to score in just one inning---the first.
Maine (3/4) and Sauernheimer (3/5) each had three-hit games for the Golden Eagles, while Salgado collected two hits in five trips to the plate. Burcher and Powell both drove in two runs for the KSU.
On Friday, the Golden Eagles (4-8) host USCAA No. 2 ranked Cincinnati Clermont (16-8) in the first of the three-game series with a 9-inning game starting at 1pm. The game will be played at Tuscora Park, while Saturday's doubleheader will begin at 12 pm at Tuscarawas Central Catholic.
Coach Morozek meets with base runners Spencer Kornspan, Kyle Shockley and Steve Michniak at third base during a pitching change.
(Photos by Rob Brindley)