Lexington, KY- The baseball team returned to the diamond to finish their three-game series against the Transylvania University Pioneers this afternoon. Today the Mountaineers served as the visiting team though as the doubleheader conclusion took place on the Pioneers home field.
The first matchup between the two teams on Friday was an offensive strife, as a pitching duel ensued between the opposing pitchers. The first game of today's doubleheader did not follow suit, as Josh Wilson's triple to open the game quickly became a 1-0 lead for Berea off a RBI from Ryan Blevens. Transy came back in the bottom of the first and tied the game at 1-1. After a Transy run in the second inning gave them a one run advantage, Andrew Akins started the third inning with a single. Akins was left on base as the next three batters recorded outs. A scoring chance presented itself for the Mountaineers in the fifth inning as William Hislope and a second hit from Akins put runners on first and second base with one out in the inning.
The runners would not advance any further as the next two batters were put out as the rest of the fifth inning remained scoreless, as the score read 3-1 after a Pioneers run in the third inning. Berea saw another chance to score in the sixth inning and hit pay dirt this time. Blevens began the inning with a single to center field before the next batter flied out to left field. Ron Overstreet came to the plate for the Mountaineers and blasted a ball over the fence for a two-run home run, tying the game 3-3. The tie lasted only a few minutes though as Transy scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to pull ahead 8-3. Three hits in the top of the seventh inning by Akins, his third of the game, Joshua Works and Wilson and a Seth Wallingford single in the eighth fell short of making it to home plate and the Pioneers went on to take game one of the doubleheader 13-3.
Berea finished with ten total hits, including a perfect 3-3 from the plate from Akins, along with two hits from Wilson and one hit each from Blevens, Overstreet, Wallingford, Hislope and Works. Overstreet hit his first home run of the season and finished with two RBIs while Blevens had a RBI and one run scored. Wilson scored the other run for the Mountaineers. Michael Smither started the game on the mound for Berea, giving up ten hits and striking out five batters in five innings.
Wilson came to the plate to begin the second game and reached base on a hit by pitch and quickly moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Blevens and advanced to third on a balk. The next batter, Nicholas Bottom, hit a triple which put the first run on the board as Wilson came across home plate. The score changed again in favor of the Mountaineers in the second inning as Joshua Durbin reached base and advanced to second base via an error. Hislope's bunt single moved Durbin to third before Berea took a 2-0 lead on Caleb Gupton's RBI ground out as Durbin scored. Four runs over the fourth and fifth inning by Transy gave them a 4-2 lead as the teams went into the sixth inning. Berea was unable to produce enough offense to overcome the deficit as they fell 4-2 in the second game of the doubleheader.
Overstreet's 2-3 from the batter's box led the way for the Mountaineers as two hits from Hislope and hits from Wilson, Bottom, Gupton and Works gave Berea eight total hits in the game. Bottom and Gupton finished the game with a RBI each. Chad Brown had a solid outing on the mound for the Mountaineers, pitching 7.1 innings while giving up five hits and striking out five batters.
Berea (3-11) returns to the diamond at the Berea College Sports Complex for a single game against Centre College on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6:00 PM.