Trailblazers baseball falls late in series finale at Cleveland State

CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The Vincennes University baseball team got off to a great start at the plate, scoring five runs in the first two innings but were unable to maintain this hot start as VU fell 9-5 in the final game of Vincennes' three-game weekend set at Cleveland State Community College.

Vincennes looked to get on the board early and often Saturday afternoon, with the first three batters all reaching base, including an RBI single by sophomore Colton Evans (Henderson, Ky.) and a two-RBI single by sophomore Colin Long (Evansville, Ind.) to give VU an early 3-0 lead.

The Cougars answered back in the bottom of the first, evening the game and getting all three runs back to end the first inning of play tied 3-3.

The Trailblazers broke this tie quickly in the top of the second with a two-run home run by sophomore Kaden Elliott (New Albany, Ind.), his first home run of his collegiate career.

This would, however, be about the extent of VU's offense Saturday. Cleveland State would go on to tie the game in the third and take the lead with a run in the fourth.

Cleveland State extended their lead with three runs in the sixth and were able to hold on late as VU fell by the final score of 9-5.

"Kaden Elliott walked a couple of times and ended up two for three with a single and a home run," VU Head Baseball Coach Chris Barney said. "Colin Long got his single in the first which got him a couple of RBI's. Colton got his RBI single and Ethan Burdette (Linton, Ind.) got a single. That's about it for the hits."

"Offensively, we just have to sustain that and continue to build on our lead," Barney added. "Cleveland State did a good job of coming in with their bullpen and shut us down."

Freshman Josh McCormick (Indianapolis, Ind.) got the start on the mound Saturday and lasted three innings, allowing five runs on six hits and striking out one.

Sophomore Jake Stuteville (Rockport, Ind.) entered in relief and threw two and one-third innings, allowing four runs on four hits and striking out one.

Freshman Logan Medsker (Marshall, Ill.) had a good day on the mound in his VU debut, throwing two and one-third shutout innings, allowing one hit and striking out three.

Freshman Jack Robinson (Mooresville, Ind.) got in the game to get some experience on the mound and retired the only batter he faced.

"Logan did a great job," Barney said. "He threw two good innings for us and really shut the door on them. He threw really well and dominated on the mound. Then we got Jack Robinson on the dirt so he could get a feel for being out there. That's the positive thing that comes out of this three-game series is using 12 pitchers this weekend and were able to get some guys on the dirt that needed to get some experience and see what it's like. Especially as we get ready to go next weekend with four games. Everybody has to get used to what it's going to be like for our four-game Conference weekends."

"The bottom line is that we have to throw strikes," Barney added. "We have to think of this two different ways, the score of the game was 9-5 and we walked four and all four walks scored. We also have to shut down teams after we score. We scored early and let them get right back into the game. When we score runs, we have to be able to shut guys out the next inning and keep the momentum in our dugout. That's going to be the biggest takeaway and hopefully the biggest learning experience for our club."

The Trailblazers will look to build off of this first weekend road trip next week when VU opens the doors at Jerry Blemker Field for the first time this season.

VU will host Frontier Community College Friday, Feb. 17 at 1 p.m. to get a very busy weekend at the Jerry started.

Vincennes will have a doubleheader Saturday, Feb. 18 first against South Suburban at 10:30 a.m. and against Ancilla College at 6 p.m. eastern.

VU will look to close out the home stand Sunday, Feb. 19, although an opponent has not been announced yet for Sunday. First pitch Sunday is set for 1 p.m. eastern.

"We are really just trying to get four games in next weekend and extend it more than two days and play three days in a row," Barney said. "It's what we try to do just so our guys can get used to it physically and get used to what they have to do mentally to play on a weekend."

"Experience is one thing I hope we've gained this weekend," Barney added. "We got 12 pitchers and about 16 or 17 position players into the games this weekend. We are trying to build some depth on the mound and positionally. It's a long season, injuries are going to happen or they get banged up and need to miss a game here or there and hopefully we have some guys with some experience that can fill in."

"The next biggest thing is that we learned that we can play competitively," Barney said. "We were in all three games. We didn't do a good job of finishing today. But our guys showed that we can compete against a very solid Division I baseball team. Hopefully we can also learn from our mistakes. We had a few errors today, had a few more yesterday in the second game that really cost us and we need to build off of this weekend. If we can do that, then I'm really looking forward to the rest of the 53 games that we are going to play."

BOX SCORE

VU (1-2) – 320    000    000 – 5

Cleveland State – 302   103   00x – 9

VINCENNES HITTING

HR – Elliott. RBI – Elliott 2, Evans, Long 2. HBP – Clifton.