Marlins Split Saturday with Eagles
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The Virginia Wesleyan College baseball team played two tightly-contested games on Saturday, splitting with Bridgewater College in Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) action.
Game 1: 11-9 Virginia Wesleyan Victory
The Marlins jumped out to an 11-3 lead in the first game Saturday before holding off Bridgewater for an 11-9 win.
Bridgewater struck first in the game, but a seven-spot in the bottom of the first inning gave the Marlins a commanding 7-1 lead.
Brandon Kussmaul walked to lead off the inning, scoring on Corey King's double to left-center. Following a wild pitch, King scored on a failed pickoff attempt to make it 2-0. Deon Hammond provided an RBI single to make it 3-0, scoring on Jimmy Ziemke's single for a 4-0 Marlin lead. Daniel Petro followed Ziemke with a two-RBI single through the right side for the fifth and sixth VWC runs. Another failed pickoff attempt allowed the seventh run to score.
Bridgewater scored two in the top of the fourth to make it 7-3, but once again the Eagles could not hold the opposition down in the bottom half of the frame.
The Marlins posted four runs in the bottom of the fourth to go up 11-3, highlighted by a two-run bomb to left field by Taylor Erby.
Bridgewater attempted a late comeback in the eighth, taking advantage of four walks, a hit by pitch, and an error to score six runs on just two hits. The Eagles loaded the bases with one out, forcing the Marlins to bring in closer Riley Koonce. The Marlin hurler induced a fielder's choice force out at home for the second out before getting out of the frame with a groundout to second.
Koonce picked up his fifth save, allowing a hit while striking out two in 1.2 innings.
Game 2: 6-5 Bridgewater Victory
Bridgewater scored first in the second game as well, going up 1-0 on a Kenner Berry RBI single to center, but once again the Eagles could not hold the lead as the Marlins plated two in the bottom half of the frame.
Back-to-back doubles by Kussmaul and King created the first run before King scored on a Randy Neisz single for a 2-1 lead.
The Marlins scored lone runs in the third and the fourth on sacrifice flies by Justin Erby and Brady Fallon to give the Marlins a 4-2 lead heading into the fifth.
Virginia Wesleyan held that margin until the seventh when the Eagles rallied with a runner on first and two outs. Berry singled through the left side to move Austin Batten to second. Brett Jones came off the bench to pinch hit, doubling down the right field line to tie the contest at two. Jones later scored on a Jacob Talley single to left to put BC up 5-4.
Bridgewater scored one more in the eighth to go up 6-4, making a ninth-inning rally challenging for the Marlins. BC set down the first two Marlins, but Justin Erby brought the Marlins within one swing on a homer to left. The Eagles induced a groundout of the next batter to end the contest.
Berry and Talley had three hits each for Bridgewater (11-15/4-6) in game two.
Neisz had two hits in the second game, combined with one hit in the first contest, to extend his hitting streak to 27 games.
Virginia Wesleyan (13-12/4-5) travels to Hampden-Sydney College (15-11/4-4) for an ODAC contest Wednesday at 4 p.m.