March 19, 2016
GOSHEN, Ind. - The Bluffton University baseball team followed the softball team's lead and saved the best for last. After falling 3-2 in the lidlifter, Bluffton (5-7) scored four runs in the ninth inning of game two for a 5-1 victory at Goshen College (7-16) on a cold Saturday, March 19, 2016. The Beaver softball team scored its only runs of the day in the sixth inning of game two for a 3-1 victory over Capital University just before the baseball team earned its split.
Goshen scored a run in the second and two more in the fourth for an early 3-0 lead before the Beavers made their first mark on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth. Austin Prosser (Galion) singled and Blake Fox (Berne. Ind./South Adams) followed with a double to put two Beavers in scoring position. Tommy Nobile's (Reynoldsburg) RBI groundout plated Prosser before Landen Brown's (Lebanon) ground ball picked up pinch runner Ryan Golden (Findlay) for a 3-2 score. Goshen retired five straight Beavers to hold off Bluffton in game one.
Taylor Gambrell (Bowling Green) dropped his first decision of the season after allowing three runs, two earned, on five hits in five innings of work. Austin Every (Zanesville/West Muskingum) worked a scoreless sixth to keep Bluffton in the game. Prosser went 2-of-4 for the visitors.
With game two knotted 1-1 after eight innings, Bluffton exploded for four tallies in the top of the ninth. A two-out wild pitch with the bases loaded sent pinch runner Dennis Szalai (LaGrange/Keystone) scurrying home with the go-ahead run. Luke Hickey (Toledo/Whitmer) followed with a two-RBI single and Austin Prosser singled in Hickey for a 5-1 lead. Travis Clark (Lima/Central Catholic) worked around a one-out single in the bottom of the frame to secure the Bluffton victory and series split.
Brantley Curnette (Hilliard/Davidson) did not figure in the decision but he was sensational, allowing just one run on two hits in 6.1 innings of work with three strikeouts. Dyson Bowman (Coshocton) earned his first win of the season after tossing 1.2 innings of scoreless relief.
Tommy Nobile and Jason Colliver (Beavercreek) both finished with two hits while Hickey drove in a pair of runs in the decisive ninth inning.
Bluffton returns to Memorial Field for a 4:15 meeting with Albion College on Tuesday, March 19, 2016.
-BEAVERS-
