PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – Dave Mangold hit a two-run homer in the seventh to bring the Lebanon Valley baseball team within one run, and then Mike Bulgia hit a go-ahead single in the eighth as the Dutchmen fought back to defeat Bluffton University 7-6 on Tuesday in Port Charlotte.
 
The Beaver (1-4) scored twice in the second inning and then two more in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead. The Dutchmen (2-4) responded with a two-spot in the bottom half of the inning to cut the lead down to 4-2. Bluffton added a run in the fifth and eighth innings but LVC rallied with two in the seventh and a huge three-run eighth to come away with the victory.
 
Inside the Box Score

• Bulgia knocked in the game-winning run with a bases-loaded single with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. Pete Botbyl and Max Kaplan scored for the Dutchmen while Bulgia recorded his team-leading eighth hit of the year and extended his hitting streak to five games.
• Mangold blasted his first career homer in the seventh inning to cut the lead down to 5-4. The junior led the team with two hits on the day in four at-bats and worked a walk.
• Bryan Mowery also had two hits for LVC and knocked in the first run of the eighth inning with a single.
• Defensively, the Dutchmen turned three double plays with all three being 6-4-3 as Ethan O'Loughlin fielded the grounders at short, tossed it to Conor Smith covering second, and then the relay to first. The biggest double play of the game was in the ninth inning after the Beavers put the first two batters on base.
• Michael Williams, Sam Dozier, Will Zimmerman, Dylan Lower, and Andrew Spaan combined to throw 5.1 innings out of the pen. Lower earned the win with three strikeouts in the eighth inning while Spaan earned his second save of the year.
• This was the second-ever meeting between LVC and Bluffton. The Beavers won the first meeting 11-6 back in 1989.

Who's Next
Lebanon Valley will continue their spring trip in Florida on Wednesday with the first of two games this week against Heidelberg University. Game time is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Field #9 at Centennial Park in Port Charlotte.

Stay Connected
Be sure to follow @lvcathletics on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for the most in-depth coverage of LVC Athletics.