VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University baseball team ended a very productive weekend on a bad note Sunday morning at Jerry Blemker Field.
The Blazers hosted a rematch against the No. 12-ranked Kellogg Community College Bruins and came up on the bad end of some big innings to fall 26-8 to end the weekend.
VU got off to a fast start Sunday morning, breaking open the scoring in the bottom of the first with an RBI single by redshirt freshman Holden Clifton (Louisville, Ill.) and a two RBI single by freshman Nate Montgomery (Lexington, Ind.).
Kellogg would answer back with a run in the second and another run in the third to cut the VU lead to one before breaking the game open in the fourth with a massive 10-run inning to take a 12-3 lead.
The Bruins weren't done there though as Kellogg followed that inning with an eight-run fifth to take a 20-3 lead.
Vincennes would get a run back in the bottom of the fifth after a leadoff walk by sophomore Keegan Schlotterbeck (Centerville, Ind.), a single by freshman Reed Drabant (Columbia, Ill.) and another walk by freshman Noble Johnson (Terre Haute, Ind.) to load the bases.
Schlotterbeck would come in to score on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Brandon Juarez (Evansville, Ind.) to cut the deficit to 20-4.
Kellogg would score six in the sixth before VU again refused to give in in the bottom half of the inning starting with back-to-back singles by freshman Brody Fessel (DePauw, Ind.) and sophomore Dylan Ecken (Louisville, Ky.), followed by a walk by freshman Damon Kay (Spencer, Ind.) and a bases loaded hit by pitch by freshman Brody Shaw (Cory, Ind.).
Reed Drabant would then clear the bases with a three-RBI triple, giving him two hits in back-to-back innings and making the score 26-8.
This would be as close as the Vincennes comeback attempt would get however as the Bruins finished out the weekend with a 26-8 victory over the Trailblazers.
"Obviously when you go 3-1 on the weekend it's a positive thing," VU Head Baseball Coach Chris Barney said. "The bad thing is not playing your best baseball in the last game of the weekend. It is what it is today but going 3-1 on the weekend with three quality wins over Kellogg, Lincoln Trail and Glen Oaks that's a real positive."
"Today was just one of those days," Barney added. "A lot of things fell for them, not a lot for us. We didn't do a very good job of swinging it and had three errors. We were competitive for about three or four innings and then the bullpen kind of blew up today."
"We've just got to figure it out but to go 3-1 this weekend is a real positive thing for this team," Barney said. "We've got to build off of that and continue to work. Hopefully we can get better from this."
"Some guys did step up at the plate in the later innings with some opportunities that might not have been around," Barney added. "When you talk about leading off an inning with hits by Brody Fessel and Dylan Ecken, a walk by Damon Kay, a hit by pitch for Brody Shaw and then follow that with Reed Drabant getting a three-RBI triple. Plus a sac fly for Juarez, but those are the situations where we've got to come up with better hits and multiple hits to help put up some crooked numbers. We gave up a 10-spot and eight-spot and a six-spot today. It's hard to overcome that. But those were the guys that stepped up and did some damage in the later part of the game."
Freshman Carson Allen (Louisville, Ky.) got the start on the mound for VU Sunday, throwing two and one-thirds innings, allowing two runs, one earned on two hits and striking out three.
Sophomore Jace Parnin (Fort Wayne, Ind.) pitched an inning and one-third of relief, allowing five runs on three hits and striking out three.
Freshman Bryce Gross (Bridgeport, Ill.) came in to throw an inning of work, allowing four runs on four hits and striking out one.
Freshman Colton Okes (Evansville, Ind.) finished off the last inning and one-third, allowing one hit without allowing a run and striking out one in his appearance.
The Trailblazers will look to bounce back Wednesday, March 6 when VU takes on Lake Land College from Mattoon, Ill. at Jerry Blemker Field in the final tune up game before the start of the Mid-West Athletic Conference (MWAC) schedule. First pitch Wednesday is set for 3 p.m. eastern.
VU will begin conference play on the road Friday, March 8 and Saturday, March 9 at Lewis & Clark Community College in Godfrey, Ill. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. eastern on Friday and Saturday.
"We've got to play against Lake Land and do well," Barney said. "Then turnaround and go right into conference play against Lewis & Clark who will be a quality club. They've had some success lately, so we'll see how they are. But I feel good about where we are at moving forward going into conference play with the schedule that we've played and the people that we've played."
BOX SCORE
Kellogg – 011 (10)86 0 – 26
VU (6-9) – 300 014 0 – 8
VINCENNES HITTING
3B – Drabant. RBI – Drabant 3, Montgomery 2, Clifton, Juarez, Shaw. Sac Fly – Juarez. SB – Robinson, Hinton. HBP – Shaw, Hinton, Schlotterbeck.
