Feb. 26, 2010
Box
Score
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Belmont
outlasted Eastern Illinois, 6-5, on Friday evening at Shelby Park
for a third-straight one-run victory while improving to 4-0 on the
season.
Freshman Josh Davis gave up no
runs in 5 1/3 innings of relief to earn his first career win at
Belmont. Jon
Ivie closed out a tight ninth-inning with the bases loaded for
his second save of the season.
"You cannot say enough about
the job that Josh
Davis did coming out of the bullpen as a freshman," Head Coach
David Jarvis
said. "He threw a bunch of goose eggs in order to give our offense
enough time to grind out another three runs to take the
lead."
Eastern Illinois' first five
batters reached base and while scoring four runs in the first
inning. Belmont slowly chipped away at the Panthers' lead with two
unearned runs in the first and holding EIU to just one run for the
remainder of the game.
Davis inherited two runners
and a 3-5 deficit in the third inning from Dane Swinehart who
made his second start of the season. Davis quickly retired his
first batter to end the inning and went on to give up no runs
before handing the ball to closer Jon Ivie. Davis struck
out four to receive his first win as a Bruin.
Junior right fielder Tim Egerton extended
Belmont's homerun streak to four games with a lead-off homerun in
the second inning. Junior first baseman Nate Woods followed
suit in the next inning with a solo blast - his second of the
season - to put Belmont within one run at 4-5.
With two outs in the bottom of
the sixth senior Mark Noth hit the
go-ahead two-RBI single to give Belmont a 6-5 advantage. Noth was
down in the count with one ball and two strikes and hit a single up
the middle to score Judah Akers and Matt
Zeblo.
"As a senior, it was a clutch
at-bat for him," Jarvis said. "He was in a two-strike count but you
could tell he was battling the whole way and then he lines to
right-center field for the two run go-ahead RBI."
After winning the 2009 Regular
Season Ohio Valley Conference title Eastern Illinois falls to 0-4
early in 2010.
At 4-0, with three one-run
victories, Belmont is finding ways to win in the midst of its best
start since setting a program record for wins in 2007.
"We have four come-from-behind
wins now, our freshman and younger players have reacted well in
some tight situations - I've been very pleased with that" Jarvis
said. "I'm proud of the character and the winning attitude in our
dugout right now. It's contagious, no doubt about it."
The series resumes tomorrow at
1 p.m. at Shelby Park with live coverage on the Bruins Sports
Network with Rich Tiner at play-by-play.
