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| Jeff Cleanthes has earned 361 of his 400 wins with the Rhodes Lynx. Rhodes athletics photo |
Austin, Texas - Last year Concordia Texas eliminated Rhodes baseball from the NCAA Tournament by two runs. In their preseason matchup Saturday night, the Lynx led 6-5 before ultimately winning 13-6. Concordia had received 18 votes and Rhodes 10 votes in the 2018 D3baseball.com preseason top-25 poll. The win is 400th overall for Rhodes head coach Jeff Cleanthes. Of those, 361 have been with the Lynx. He is now in his 15th year at the helm of the program.
Concordia led 5-0 before Rhodes gained five runs in the bottom of the third inning. Those five runs came after the bases were loaded with one out on a fielding error, walk, hit by pitch, single and a sacrifice fly. Rhodes added another run in the fourth on a wild pitch to lead 6-5.
In the top of the sixth, Nick Bosma moved from third base to the mound for Rhodes and sat the Tornadoes down one-two-three. The Lynx hit multiple extra base hits in the bottom of the seventh. Jake Stacy doubled to left center and was brought home on a two-run home run just left of the right foul pole by Ryan Palermo. The Lynx bats kept coming and following Palermo, Will Heurtin set himself up to score on a ground-rule double to center. He scored on Levi Greenberg's single. Greenberg moved to third on a single by Brady John and scored on a grounder by Jon Michael Lauck.
Rhodes now led 10-5 and added three more runs in the eighth before Concordia added one more to the scoreboard in the ninth. Bosma led off the eighth with a triple and scored on Jacob Telli's single. With two outs, Greenberg singled and scored Telli. Palermo, who singled to reach base, scored after a throwing error extended the inning.
Palermo and Greenberg each earned three runs batted in. The Lynx earned seven walks and each team left 10 runners on base.
Jack Mercer started the game and earned the win for Rhodes after pitching five innings. Bosma finished the game and pitched four innings. Each tallied three strikeouts.
Rhodes will hopefully get a good sleep in before taking the field for their final game in Texas at 10 a.m. against George Fox University.