VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University baseball team battled Sunday afternoon at Jerry Blemker Field in the final two games of their four-game weekend Mid-West Athletic Conference (MWAC) series with No. 15-ranked Lincoln Land Community College.
The Trailblazers closed out the weekend dropping the Sunday doubleheader 10-5 in game one and 17-6 in game two.
Vincennes got off to an excellent start Sunday afternoon with sophomore Blake Heyerly (Monroe, Ind.) coming through in the bottom of the first with a double to start a two-out rally.
Freshman Corbin Napier (Indianapolis, Ind.) reached after being hit by pitch, followed by sophomore Brandon Juarez (Evansville, Ind.) drawing a walk to load the bases.
Sophomores Dylan Ecken (Louisville, Ky.) and Bryan Kohlmeyer (Paris, Ill.) got the first two runs across on back-to-back bases loaded walks, followed by an RBI single by sophomore Bryton Griffy (Louisville, Ill.) to put the Blazers on top 3-0 over the Loggers.
Lincoln Land would get those runs back and then some in the next inning with the Loggers scoring seven in the second.
VU would look to work their way back in the third after a two-out double by Bryan Kohlmeyer and a walk by freshman Reed Drabant (Columbia, Ill.).
Kohlmeyer would come around to score on an RBI single by freshman Bryce Gross (Bridgeport, Ill.).
Drabant later scored on a double steal with Gross to cut the Blazers deficit to 7-5.
Lincoln Land would answer again in the next inning, scoring two runs in the fourth and adding another run in the fifth.
VU continued to battle and looked to regain the lead late but were unable to get another run across as Lincoln Land took game one of the day 10-5.
Freshman Alex Wandersee (Centerville, Ind.) got the start in game one for Vincennes, throwing four innings, allowing nine runs, three earned runs on six hits and two strikeouts.
Freshman JD Bowser (Mt. Carmel, Ill.) was the first out of the pen for Vincennes, throwing two innings, allowing one unearned run on three hits and striking out one.
Bryce Gross stepped up on the mound from his shortstop position to pitch the seventh inning, allowing one hit and striking out two in an inning of work.
"We jumped out early in game one and got a lead," VU Head Baseball Coach Chris Barney said. "Then an error, a walk, a hit batsmen and gave them back seven runs in the second inning after being up 3-0. It's really disappointing from our guys in that situation but our guys continued to battle and kept it to a 10-5 game."
"It's just tough when you think you've got guys on the bump who can get it done and we just don't or we can't overcome an error and it just compounds and snowballs," Barney added. "Guys battled and guys competed. We just came up short in game one."
The Blazers looked to bounce back and close out the weekend strong in game two but again found themselves playing from behind early after the Loggers plated three runs in the second and added another run in the third to take a 4-0 lead.
VU would get on the on the board in the bottom of the third after Bryan Kohlmeyer, freshman Yancey Edlin (Pekin, Ind.) and sophomore Jace Parnin (Fort Wayne, Ind.) led off the inning with three straight walks.
Kohlmeyer came in to score the first Vincennes run of the game on a wild pitch, while Edlin scored on a sacrifice fly by Bryce Gross to put VU within two.
Lincoln Land got the runs back with three runs in the fourth, two run in the fifth and put the game away with a big eight-run sixth inning.
The Trailblazers were able to get some action going on the base paths in the sixth after freshman Brody Fessel (DePauw, Ind.), sophomore Trevor Newman (Fort Wayne, Ind.) and Dylan Ecken loaded the bases on three walks.
Fessel scored on a passed ball before freshman Bradyn Douglas (Frankton, Ind.) cleared the bases with a three-run home run, his first collegiate home run.
The late rally was unfortunately not enough as Lincoln Land closed out game two by the final score of 17-6.
Sophomore Josh McCormick (Indianapolis, Ind.) got the starting nod in game two on the mound, throwing an inning and two-thirds before exiting due to illness. McCormick allowed three runs, two earned on one hit with two strikeouts.
Sophomore Max Lines (Indianapolis, Ind.) was the first out of the pen, throwing two and one-third innings, allowing four runs on four hits and striking out one.
Jace Parnin took a turn on the mound after starting the game at second base and was able to get through two-thirds of an inning before exiting with an injury. Parnin allowed two runs on one hit and struck out one before exiting the game.
The Trailblazers then turned to freshman Colton Okes (Evansville, Ind.) as the last remaining arm out of the pen and the freshman battled through an inning and one-third, allowing eight runs on four hits and striking out one in his first time pitching in back-to-back days this season.
"Josh McCormick comes out in the second inning in game two," Barney said. "Jace Parnin comes out after two outs because of an injury. Josh because of illness. Those are the guys that we thought we could get five or six innings out of at least and we weren't able to get three. We put some guys in some bad situations because of it."
"Max Lines competed for us," Barney added. "He gave us two and a third and then we had to bring in Okes as the last guy standing and he had to battle through it. It's really tough where our club is at injury wise at the moment. We have around 17 position players out of 24 healthy and about nine or 10 pitchers out of a staff of about 16. We can't make excuses about it, everybody is going through it this late in the year, but right now we seem to be getting bit by it."
The Trailblazers will look to get things turned around and get back in the win column next week as VU hits the road Wednesday, April 17 to take on Franklin College JV at 4 p.m. eastern.
Vincennes will then return to their MWAC Conference schedule next weekend when VU heads to Canton, Ill. to take on Spoon River College Saturday, April 20 and Sunday April 21. First pitch times for this weekend are set at 1 p.m. eastern.
"We have to do a better job all the way around, from the top down, coaches included," Barney said. "Then the players, obviously, have to be able to go out and execute and play. Opportunities are going to come up this week at Franklin and Spoon River and we've got to get back on the winning track here."
BOX SCORE
GAME ONE
Lincoln Land – 070 210 0 – 10
VU (11-29, 4-15) – 302 000 0 – 5
VINCENNES HITTING
2B – Heyerly, Kohlmeyer. RBI – Ecken, Kohlmeyer, Griffy, Gross. HBP – Napier. SB – Ecken, Drabant.
GAME TWO
Lincoln Land – 031 328 – 17
VU (11-30, 4-16) – 002 004 – 6
VINCENNES HITTING
2B – Ecken. HR – Douglas. RBI – Douglas 3, Gross. Sac Fly – Gross. Sac Bunt – Newman.
