LYNCHBURG, Va. – Bridgewater College scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth inning Friday afternoon to defeat Shenandoah, 4-3, on the second day of the ODAC baseball tournament.
The victory keeps the Eagles unbeaten at the conference tournament while the loss eliminates Shenandoah from tournament play.
The Eagles scored first with a run in the bottom of the second inning. Ryan Smith led off with a double and moved to third on a single by Zach Hynes. With runners at the corners and no outs, Christian Armstrong grounded into a double play as Smith scored from third to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead.
Bridgewater starting pitcher Robert Gallet retired the first 11 batters he faced before Corbin Lucas singled for Shenandoah's first hit with two outs in the fourth. Michael Paul then doubled down the left field line to score Lucas, tying the game at 1-1. Dan Powers followed Paul's double with a single to left, but Paul was thrown out at the plate by Eagles leftfielder Nick Fulk to end the inning.
The Eagles regained the lead with a run in the bottom of the fifth. Armstrong and Matt Maher led off with back-to-back singles and that ended the day for Hornets starter Darrell Thompson. Reliever Cameron Lundmark walked Darren Yoder to load the bases before a sacrifice fly to center by Fulk scored Armstrong to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead. Lundmark limited the damage when he induced Bryan Sanderson to hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play.
The Hornets tied the score with a single run in the sixth. Nick Beall singled with one out and moved to second on a wild pitch. Lucas then singled to center to chase Beall home, making the score 2-2.
After six strong innings, Gallet turned the game over to Kyle Henshaw in the seventh. With one out, Andrew Creamer doubled to left and moved to third on a single by Denial Freshley. Billy Arens followed with a single through the left side, scoring Creamer to put the Hornets on top, 3-2.
The Eagles were down to their final out in the ninth when Armstrong kept the inning alive with a single through the right side. The Hornets led went to the pen for Michael Scimanico and the Shenandoah reliever hit Derrik Walling and Yoder with pitches to load the bases. Fulk then walked on four straight pitches to tie the score at 3-3. Walling scored the winning run on Sanderson's single as the Eagles escaped with the 4-3 victory.
Gallet worked the first six innings and allowed just two runs on six hits. He struck out five and did not walk a batter. Nick Corbin pitched the final 2.1 innings and retired all seven batters he faced to pick up the win for the Eagles.
Jonathan Mason, Hynes, Armstrong and Maher each contributed two hits to Bridgewater's 11-hit attack. Fulk drove in two of the Eagles' three runs.
With the victory, the Eagles are now 30-9 on the season while Shenandoah drops to 27-12.
Bridgewater is back in action Saturday morning at 11 when the Eagles will play the winner of the Randolph-Macon vs. Washington and Lee contest.