March 14, 2010
Box
Score
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Belmont
baseball lost its third conference game at Jacksonville by a score
of 11-15 on Sunday afternoon at Sessions Stadium.
After the best start in
program history as one of nine teams in NCAA Division I to start
10-0, Belmont (10-5, 0-3) is on a five game losing streak after
being swept by Jacksonville (10-6, 3-0) to begin conference
play.
Despite the series sweep, the
Bruins scored over 10 runs in back-to-back games for the first time
since last season's doubleheader with Jacksonville (4/4/09), games
which Belmont won 12-7 and 15-10 at Shelby Park.
Junior Nate Woods went
3-for-4 with a career-high four RBI. Junior Tim Egerton also
drove in a career-high four runs on the day, going 2-for-5. Both
hit three-run homeruns, as senior Packy Elkins
contributed a solo homerun. During the three-game series Belmont
and Jacksonville hit a combined 15 homeruns.
Of Belmont's seven pitchers on
Sunday, sophomore Garrett Fanchier
(1-1) was the pitcher of record after giving up three walks and two
earned runs in 1/3 inning. Jacksonville's Glenn Witkowski (1-1)
pitched five innings and allowed seven runs to get his first win of
the season.
A single that bounced squarely
off the left foot of starter Frank Adelman led
to an early exit after just 1 1/3 innings. Freshman Josh Davis entered the
game in unexpected relief to retire the inning with a
strikeout-throw out double play assisted by catcher Matt Zeblo to catch
Glen Johnson stealing second.
The Dolphins kept testing
Zeblo behind the plate and the Releigh, N.C., native didn't step
down, retiring two more runners on the base path to end
Jacksonville's fourth and sixth innings.
Offensively, the Bruins got on
the board in the fourth as Nate Woods and Zeblo
singled to put runners at the corners. Tim Egerton then hit
a sacrifice fly to left field to score a tagging Woods from third,
making it a 1-2 score early.
Belmont took a seemingly
comfortable 7-3 lead in a six-run fifth inning, including two
doubles and a two-run homerun from Egerton. The Bruins went through
the batting order as all runners who reached base also crossed the
plate.
Jacksonville came back strong
in the bottom half of the fifth with seven runs to take back the
lead at 9-7. Dan Gulbransen set the tone with a leadoff homerun, as
Belmont gave up a stretch of four consecutive walks.
The Bruins would not regain
the lead but got close after an Elkins homerun to straight-away
center field with two outs in the sixth, putting Belmont within one
at 8-9. Woods put the Bruins within two with another two-out
homerun in the eighth inning.
Belmont returns to Nashville
to host Cleveland State in a two game mid-week series beginning on
Tuesday at 3 p.m.
