BRIDGEWATER, VA. – Bridgewater College and Stevenson University battled to a 7-7 tie on the baseball diamond Thursday with their game stopped due to darkness after 10 innings of play.
The tie is the second of the season for Stevenson, now 1-5-2 overall. The Eagles, ranked No. 19 in the D3baseball.com poll, are now 10-4-1 on the season.
The Mustangs jumped out to a quick lead as Troy Miller's run-scoring single in the top of the first inning put Stevenson on the scoreboard.
Stevenson loaded the sacks with one out in the second inning on an infield error and back-to-back singles by Nick Peifer and Ian Eberly off Eagles started Brandon Poole. The Mustangs made it 2-0 on a sacrifice fly by John D'Aquanno before a walk to Brody Tennant reloaded the bases. Poole limited the damage by retiring Miller on a grounder to second, keeping the Mustangs' lead at 2-0.
Bridgewater took advantage of two errors in the third inning to get on the board. Cavin Clyde led off with a single and moved to second an errant pickoff throw. With two outs, Darren Yoder singled to the hole at short. Clyde scored on the play when the shortstop's throw across the daimond bounced past the first-baseman, cutting the Mustangs lead to 2-1.
Stevenson pushed its lead to 4-1 with a pair of runs in the top of the fifth. The Mustangs loaded the bases with no outs, ending the day for Poole. Miller led off with a single and Craig Joseph was hit by a pitch. Kevin Wu singled through the left side of the infield to load the bases. Jake Dimon plated a run with a sacrifice fly off Eagles relief pitcher Ian Mays, making the score 3-1. Joseph then scored on Matt Myers' RBI-groundout to short, giving the visitors a 4-1 lead.
The Eagles answered with two runs in their half of the fifth inning. Andrew Saunders led off with a single but was erased at second on a fielder's choice grounder by Clyde. After Derrik Walling was out on a fly ball to center for the second out of the inning, Clyde stole second. Austin Batten followed with a single through the right side of the infield and Clyde just beat the throw home to trim Stevenson's lead to 4-2. After Yoder walked, Batten raced home from second on Kenner Berry's single to left, cutting the margin to 4-3.
The Eagles took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. With one out, Saunders singled and was replaced on the bases by Dylan Horne. After Clyde filed to center for the second out of inning, Horne swiped second to move into scoring position. Walling was hit by a pitch to put two runners on and Batten followed with a three-run homer down the left-field line, giving the Eagles a 6-4 lead.
The Mustangs responded in the top of the seventh, scoring two runs to tie the score. With one out, Joseph was hit by a pitch and he raced home on a double to the gap in left-center by Wu. Wu moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on a ground ball to second, tying the contest at 6-6.
Stevenson regained the lead with a single run in the eighth inning. With one out, D'Aquanno bunted for a hit and continued to second on a throwing error on the play. With two outs, D'Aquanno scored on another throwing error to give the Mustangs a 7-6 lead.
The Eagles tied the game in their final at-bat, but were unable to push across the winning run as they left two runners on the basepaths. Batten led off the inning and reached on an error. Yoder walked and both runners advanced on a sacrifice bunt by Kenner Berry. Batten scored on Justin Petock's fly ball into foul territory near the Mustangs' bullpen in right field to tie the score at 7-7. Stevenson elected to intentionally walk Ryan Leake and Mustangs' pitcher Trevor Fitzsimmons retired Dustin Garst on a fly ball to right to end the inning.
Bridgewater had a chance to win the game in the bottom of the 10th, but stranded the potential winning run at third base. Horne walked to lead off the inning and moved to second on Clyde's sacrifice bunt. A wild pitch then allowed Horne to take third with just one out in the inning. Fitzsimmons caught Walling looking at a called third straight for out Nop. 2 and retired Batten on a fly ball to the rightfielder to preserve the 7-7 tie.
The Eagles finished the contest with nine hits as Batten, Berry and Saunders collected two hits each. Batten drove in four runs. Stevenson had 10 hits in the game, led by Miller's 3-for-5 effort.