Blackburn College Squeaks Past Crusaders in Extra Innings
IRVING, Texas - The University of Dallas baseball team dropped an extra inning contest to Blackburn College (IL) on Thursday afternoon. The Crusaders grabbed a 5-2 lead through six innings. Blackburn notched four unearned runs in the seventh inning to regain the lead. UD then tied it up in the seventh inning, but Ryan Steen was the hero for the Beavers after his double to left scored Christian Padilla for the game-winner in the tenth.
(Game Information) (10 innings)
Team Scores: Blackburn College (7), Dallas (6)
Team Records: Blackburn College (1-7), Dallas (10-5)
Pitcher Records: W) Sammy Gordon (1-1), L) Colby Fuller (0-1)
Blackburn loaded up the bases to open up the ballgame. With one out in the inning, Trevor Platt singled to right field to put Blackburn up 1-0. Kyle Neel, (Houston, Texas) who got his first career start on the mound, go out of the jam with two strikeouts.
Jordan Stickler (Grand Rapids, Mich.) began the bottom half of the inning with a walk and a stolen base. Stickler eventually made it to third base off a balk. Michael Jaquez (Irving, Texas) singled him in with a base hit. Without recording an out, Lowell Schwartz was replaced by Isaac Garrett. With two on and nobody out, Luke Boylson (Fairview, Texas) gathered a sacrifice fly with a deep ball hit to left. BC escaped the inning with only one run given up.
Steven Diaz doubled to deep center field in the top half of the second to score Padilla from first. In the Dallas half, Zachary Taylor (Humble, Texas) put UD back in front after he smoked a ball over the right field fence for his second homer of the season. Both teams were held scoreless in the third and fourth innings. UD pushed its lead to 5-2 after a run in the fifth and sixth inning.
In the seventh inning Blackburn scored four unearned runs to take back the lead after Dallas committed two errors. In the bottom half, Dallas then tied it back up thanks to a single by Boylston to score Nathan Patton (McKinney, Texas). Neither team could get a run across in the last two innings of regulation, after Boylson and Stickler each made a game-saving diving catch. Dallas went to extra innings for the first time this season.
The Beavers got back-to-back singles to begin the 10th. Steen came up clutch with a double to left field to score Padilla, which eventually became the game-winning run. UD was unable to get any offensive rhythm in the bottom of the 10th, as BC was able to grab its first win on the season.
Nicolas Hovde (Waco, Texas) and Josh Abalos (Lewisville, Texas) both had two-hit days to lead Dallas. Abalos also added a double and scored a run. Boylson gathered two RBI to lead the team.
Dallas used nine pitchers on the day. Neel went three innings, giving up two earned runs, while striking out four batters. Nick Goehring (Phoenix, Ariz.) and Jamie Wallace (Crockett, Texas) pitched scoreless innings. Derek Trevino (Orange Grove, Texas) made his collegiate debut with a scoreless inning. Austin Offutt (Frisco, Texas), Tyler Montemayor (Boerne, Texas), Colby Fuller (League City, Texas), William Bresnahan (Windham, N.H.) and Jaylen Camarillo (Georgetown, Texas) all contributed on the mound.
Sammy Gordon pitched 6.1 innings giving up just two earned runs to help the Beavers. Three different batters secured two hits for BC. Padilla scored four runs in the winning effort.
UD has now lost its past four extra inning contests dating to February 11, 2017 (3-2 vs. Concordia @ Airhogs Stadium).
UP NEXT
Dallas will host No. 3 Trinity University this weekend (Mar. 16-17) to open up Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) play. The doubleheader on Saturday will begin at 12:00 p.m. The series finale will then be on Sunday with first pitch slated for 1:00 p.m.