Late-Inning Rally Gives Eagles Split
WILMORE, Ky. – Another late-inning rally preserved a split for Asbury on Senior Day against Brescia. The Bearcats took game one 4-2 and Asbury scored three times in the seventh to win game two 5-4.
Casey Messner hit his second homerun of the game, a two-run shot to right-center, and fourth of the season to tie the game at 4-4. After Tyler Weaver reached on an infield single and moved to second via a balk, Danny Olszowy was intentionally walked. Tyler Wooden filed out to center before Simeon Bell provided the heroics.
The freshman Bell came to the plate with two outs and runners at second and third. Bell went with a pitch on the outer half and lined it to right. The ball took one hop and went over the fence but it didn’t matter. As soon as it landed the game was over as Weaver scooted home for the thrilling victory.
Anthony Palmer picked up the win in relief, improving to 1-2 on the season. Palmer allowed two hits and a walk in two innings after Connor Belcher was equally effective in relief of Jordan Cox. Belcher allowed only one hit and a walk in two and two-thirds innings. Cox walked three and gave up five hits in two and one-third innings of work. He allowed all four runs for the Bearcats. Christian McHatton took the loss for Brescia.
Brescia (18-26, 12-8 KIAC) scored twice in the top of the first inning before the Eagles answered with two of their own. Messner led off the bottom of the first with a homerun over the leftfield fence. Weaver followed with a single before Danny Olszowy knocked him in with a triple to right-center, but would be stranded there. Weaver finished with three hits in the game as Messner and Olszowy each had two hits.
Asbury had 12 hits in the game as eight different players collected a hit. Brescia had eight hits and left 10 on-base while the Eagles stranded seven.
In game one the Eagles took a 1-0 lead in the second after Simeon Bell tripled to lead-off the inning. Jordan Cox hit a sacrifice fly to score him. Asbury left a runner on base in five of the seven innings.
Brescia scored twice in the fourth and twice more in the sixth to push the lead to 4-1. Logan Howard took the loss (1-4) for the Eagles after six innings of seven hits and two walks. Thomas White picked up the win in a complete game effort for the Bearcats.
Seven different Eagles had a hit in the game including Tyler Wooden who carries a 10-game hitting streak into next week’s action. That is tied for the second-longest on the team this year behind Danny Olszowy’s 12-game streak.
In game one Chad Warner hit Christian McHatton with a pitch, breaking the NAIA record for hit-batters in a season. Asbury’s current total of 93 breaks Lee University’s 2009 record of 91, set in 65 games.
Asbury has now taken four of the five games against Brescia this season. They are set to meet one final time but Asbury has secured the season series for the second straight year and third time in five years.
The Eagles have changed their final regular season week and will travel to Pippa Passes on Wednesday to finish the KIAC round-robin and play Indiana Southeast and Alice Lloyd. They then are scheduled to play the round-robin originally scheduled at IUS from Thursday-Saturday. An updated schedule can always be found here.
