LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The University of Southern Indiana baseball team opened the 2017 Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule with a doubleheader split at Bellarmine University Friday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky. The Screaming Eagles lost the opener, 7-2, but bounced back to win in the nightcap, 4-3.
USI, which has won five of its last seven games, watched its record go to 8-10 overall and 1-1 in the GLVC, while Bellarmine goes to 13-9 overall, 1-1 GLVC.
In the opening game, the Eagles allowed seven unanswered runs in falling to the Knights, 7-2, to start the GLVC season.
USI had the early lead, 1-0, with a tally in the opening frame before Bellarmine took command with three in the fourth, two in the fifth, and two in the seventh to lead 7-1. The Eagles got one of the runs back in the ninth, but suffered the five-run loss.
At the plate, USI junior third baseman
Sam Griggs (Evansville, Indiana) and junior shortstop
Angel Torres (Puerto Rico) led the Eagles in the loss with two hits and one RBI each.
Eagles' senior right-handed starter
Colin Nowak (Carol Stream, Illinois) took the loss on the mound. Nowak (2-3) allowed five runs, three earned, on nine hits and one walk, while striking out six in five innings of work.
The nightcap saw USI rally from a two-run deficit to earn a split on the opening day of conference action, 4-3.
After Bellarmine opened the scoring with two runs in the bottom of the first, Torres drove in the tying runs with a triple down the left field line to knot the game, 2-2, in the fifth inning. The Eagles took their first lead of the game, 3-2, in the next frame on a sacrifice fly by sophomore catcher
Logan Brown (Mt. Vernon, Indiana), but the advantage was short lived as the Knights rallied to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth, 3-3, and send the game into the final frame all knotted up.
USI took the lead for good in the top of the seventh when junior first baseman
Nathan Kuester (Rockport, Indiana) drove in junior centerfielder
Buddy Johnson (Shelbyville, Kentucky) with the game-winning run on a sacrifice fly. The game-winning RBI in the final inning was the second in three games for Kuester.
On the mound, senior right-hander
Justin Watts (Bryan, Ohio) picked up his second win of the spring. Watts (2-1) allowed one run on one hit in the sixth before closing out the win with a scoreless seventh.
Junior right-hander
Kyle Griffin (Morganfield, Kentucky) started for USI and earned a no-decision, allowing two runs on six hits and a walk in five innings of work.
USI and Bellarmine conclude the opening weekend of GLVC action Saturday with a
9 a.m. (CDT) doubleheader at Knights Field. The first pitch has been moved up to the early morning start due to the forecast of rain on Saturday.
The Eagles return to the USI Baseball Field March 29 when they host Oakland City University for a non-conference game before returning to the road in the GLVC to play at the University of Illinois Springfield April 1-2.
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