Baseball Struggles On the Road
Cleveland, Miss. – Lynn University baseball’s team had a rough start on its first road trip, falling 4-2 and 5-4 in extra innings to No. 16 Delta State on Saturday. The Fighting Knights drop to 7-3 overall.
Carrying its momentum from a four-game sweep of Alabama-Huntsville, the Blue & White were able to start string against Delta State. Lynn grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the third inning by taking advantage of two Statesmen errors. A gaffe by Brent Langston allowed Austin Smith to reach base to open the frame while the LU centerfielder moved up a bag on a sacrifice bunt by Mike Diorio. Three batters later, a second error by DSU, this time by the catcher, allowed Smith to score the game’s first run.
The lead would not last long as Delta’s Jordan Chovanec would lead off the bottom of the third with a double and score later that inning. The Fighting Knights, though, would go on top 2-1 in the fourth when Alex Bello started things off with a single, stole second and reach home on Smith’s RBI single.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Statesmen would tie it up when Sam Kidd earned his second RBI of the game, scoring Jordan Chovanec.
Shawn Kale had another strong performance on the mound, allowing six hits and two runs while striking out eight in seven innings of work.
Delta State would grab the lead following Kale’s exit. Loading the bases with no outs, DSU would go on top for good, 4-2, off an LU error at home and RBI single by Jon Camahan.
Game two was similar to the first outing as the Blue & White took a 1-0 lead early on. Kamm Washington opened things up with a lead-off single. His presence at first forced Statesmen starter Colton Mitchell to continuously throw to the first until finally a poor throw allowed Washington to advance to third. Cory Elasik later drove in his teammate with a slow grounder to short.
The Fighting Knights extended their lead in the third when Kyle Radzewski and Austin Smith hit back-to-back singles to start off the inning. Anthony Boza added to his RBI total with a run scoring double to give him 15 RBIs on the season.
Delta State was able to cut the lead in half in the bottom of the third, though, when Brent Kakwitch hit a RBI single. Later, in the bottom of the fifth DSU grabbed its first lead of the contest, 3-2, with a RBI hits by Kidd and Kakwitch.
Ryan Gabbard started the game and combined with Joe Perrotta to fan eight batters in eight inninsgs.
Lynn would not go down that easy as Elasik started the top of the sixth with a double followed by a RBI single from Jason Matusik to send the game into extra innings.
It would not be until the top of the ninth until the Fighting Knights would take the lead. Bello scored the potential game-winning run on a RBI single from Mike Diorio, putting Lynn on top 4-3.
Holding the one-run advantage, Lynn went to the pen and closer Jason Whelan. Two outs in the first three batters gave LU hope for a split but consecutive walks loaded the bases and a two-run walk-off single by the Statesmen ended the game.
The Fighting Knights close out their three-game series at Delta State on Sunday, February 19, at 1 p.m. Fans can follow the action live at LynnFightingKnights.com by selecting the Game Central icon.
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