Baseball Drops Second Day Doubleheader Against Goshen College

Baseball Drops Second Day Doubleheader Against Goshen College

Berea, KY-The baseball team returned to the field on this windy but beautiful day to conclude their four-game weekend series against the Goshen College Maple Leafs. Berea was on the wrong end of the two close games yesterday afternoon against Goshen.

It was looking like starting pitcher Joshua Works was going to get out of the first inning quickly after two quick outs. After a double scored two runs for the Maple Leafs, the bases soon became loaded after two walks. Goshen added a third run in the top half of the first before Works struck out the next batter swinging with the bases still loaded to put the Mountaineers at the plate before any more damage could be done. A double from Ryan Blevens put Berea in business as Nicholas Bottom came to the plate. Bottom's single gave the Mountaineers their first run of the game, making the score 3-1. After the next two batters for Berea recorded outs, the game saw a scoreless second inning before the scoreboard saw changes again. Three runs in the top of the third inning and a run in the top of the fourth pushed the Maple Leafs ahead 7-1 as the Mountaineers came out of the dugout in the bottom of the fourth ready to make a dent in the visitors lead.

With runners on second and third, Andrew Akins' sacrifice fly to left field brought Ron Overstreet in from third base to cut the lead to five. Caleb Gupton's single scored Will Hislope before a Works single brought Gupton to home plate as Berea moved within three runs of the lead, moving the score to 7-4. A five run fifth inning pushed the deficit the Mountaineers faced to 12-4 as the teams moved to the final inning of the game. Blade Hampton started the comeback attempt for Berea, as his single put him on first and an error by the pitcher put him on second place. Josh Wilson's single put runners on first and third with Hampton moving on to third base. Blevens' second double of the game scored Hampton to make the score 12-5, putting runners in scoring position hoping to continue to add runs to the scoreboard. A Bottom walk loaded the bases before Ron Overstreet's single brought Wilson to home plate to put the sixth run on the board. A second Hislope hit allowed Blevens to score his second run of the game before a double play ended the comeback attempt by the Mountaineers, giving Goshen the 12-7 victory.

Blevens, Hislope and Overstreet each finished 2-4 from the plate while Blevens finished with two runs scored and a RBI. Bottom, Overstreet, Hislope, Akins, Gupton and Works all finished with RBI for Berea. The team finished with 11 hits, scoring seven runs from those hits.

Trailing 4-0 in the beginning of the second game, Wilson reached base via a hit by pitch to put one runner on for the Mountaineers. Bottom came to the plate and hit a blast to left field which caused the left fielder for the Maple Leafs to misread the projection of the ball allowing Bottom to reach second base and Wilson to make the score 4-1.  A second run for Berea came in the bottom of the second inning as Blevens' RBI single scored Gupton as the score moved to 8-2 in favor of the visiting team. Overstreet doubled in the third inning, putting himself in scoring position for the next batter to attempt to bring him in. Hislope came to the plate and hit a double which scored Overstreet for the third run, pulling the Mountaineers within five runs of the lead, 8-3. After four runs in the fourth inning by Goshen, Berea scored two more runs to in the bottom of the fourth as Blevens' hit a single to score Works and Overstreet hit a sacrifice fly, bringing home Wilson to make the score 12-5. The offense of the Mountaineers became stalled over the remainder of the game and fell in the second game by a score of 21-5. Blevens finished 2-4 from the plate, bringing two runs with his hits. Bottom, Hislope and Overstreet all finished with one RBI each.

Berea (2-7) returns to the field when they travel to Knoxville, TN on Tuesday to play Johnson University, a team they swept in a doubleheader earlier this week. The teams are scheduled for a doubleheader, with the first game beginning at 1:00 PM and the second game slated to start at 3:00 PM.