| Scott Hilpert triple leads to
the lone Wildcat run. Linfield athletics photo |
After a dominating start to the 2015 season that saw them sweep past perennial regional tournament prospects Texas-Dallas and LaVerne, No. 4-ranked Linfield ran into NAIA Corban University and left-handed starter Tommy Davidson Friday night at Roy Helser Field.
Davidson, after surrendering a run in the third, handcuffed the Wildcats over his final five frames with just one hit allowed before relief pitcher Adam Shumka shut the door on the home team to a close a 3-1 final. Linfield resumes a busy weekend hosting Northwest Conference rival Puget Sound Saturday in non-conference play and facing another NAIA foe, Oregon Tech, in a pair of contests Sunday.
Looking further into the top 25, it was a light evening. No. 16-ranked Trinity (Texas) was buoyed by the pitching of senior right-hander Zach Speer and a three-hit, two-run scored and one-RBI offensive output from junior infielder/outfielder Jose Santos in a 9-5 win at LeTourneau to move to 4-0. LeTourneau moves to 0-2 on Friday the 13th over the last four years.
| Matt Brown scored the
Panther's first run of the season as Birmingham-Southern was
clicking on all cylinders in their season opener. Birmingham-Southern athletics photo by Cari Dean |
No. 18-ranked Birmingham-Southern was also victorious coupling a four-run fourth and five-run fifth in route to a 10-1 season-opening win at Schreiner in Jackson, Miss. D3Baseball.com preseason All-Americans David Bourbonnais finished with three hits, two RBIs and a run scored, while fellow preseason All-American and senior Blake Stevens stymied Schreiner early with eight strikeouts over five innings.
Weather dashed three top 25 squad’s early-season opportunities, too, as a potential head-to-head twinbill between No. 19-ranked Shenandoah and No. 25-ranked Misericordia, set for Saturday, was called off as was No. 21-ranked Bridgewater of Virginia’s trip to Christopher Newport.
In other action, Rhodes College of Tennessee kicked off its stay at No. 3-ranked Emory’s tournament with a 3-1 win over Lynchburg. Junior pitcher Daniel Morris fired six innings of no-hit ball for the Lynx.
A pair of unearned runs in the top of the ninth helped lead Southwestern past Concordia University of Texas 7-5 to open a three-game in-state non-conference series in Austin.
Covenant’s early-season penchant for winning close-knit contests continued with senior Adam Beck driving in the winning run in the 11th to lift the Scots past Methodist 2-1 in the USA South opener for both sides.
Huntingdon’s high-powered offense has the USA South on alert, too, as they moved to 4-0 with their four successive nine-runs-or-more effort in a 9-1 win over Maryville College of Tennessee, while Piedmont also remained unbeaten holding off a late rally by LaGrange 7-6.
Millsaps opened its home tourney and season with an 8-0 win over the University of Ozarks as Smokey Etheridge gained the pitching decision behind six innings of three-hit ball with four strikeouts.