April 17, 2010
Belmont (19-19, 7-8), Stetson
(20-18, 8-4)
Game 1: Belmont 13, Stetson 3
| Box
Score
W - Woods (3-4). L - Caughel (3-3)
Game 2: Belmont 14, Stetson 4
| Box
Score
W - Davis (2-2). L - Maulbetsch (3-4)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Belmont
scored a combined 27 runs, led by Nate Woods' 10 RBI, in
a doubleheader to defeat league-leader Stetson on Saturday at
Shelby Park.
After losing a hard-fought
game one 3-6 on Friday, the Bruins came back to capture the season
series with Stetson for the fourth consecutive season. Entering the
day at 5-8 in conference play, the series win also puts Belmont in
better shape to qualify for a six-team Atlantic Sun Tournament in
May.
"It's big because it gives you
a tiebreaker over one of the teams that will be in the tournament,"
Head Coach David
Jarvis said. "Our head is not above water yet but it puts us at
7-8 in the league and at least we can see the top of the water. I
am very proud of the kids, we had a very frustrating and difficult
loss yesterday and they responded in spades. We were very
consistent mentally at the plate and our dugout was
outstanding."
Belmont responded against the
Hatters with two of the most prolific offensive displays of the
season. Between both games on Saturday the Bruins accounted for 11
multi-hit games, seven homeruns, seven doubles, 27 runs and 31
hits.
For the second consecutive
conference doubleheader Woods drove in 10 runs on multiple homeruns
to guide the Bruins to victory. Woods finished 2-for-5 with five
RBI and two homeruns in the second game, and helped his cause on
the mound going 3-for-5 at the plate with five RBI in the first
game. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa native pitched six innings in a run
rule-shortened game one with five strikeouts and two runs for the
win.
With 16 homeruns on the season
Woods ranks second in the conference, only behind national homerun
leader Jacob Tanis of Mercer.
Stetson took an early one run
lead in the first inning as Sean Emory lead off with a double. But
the lead didn't last long after Woods wasted no time to give
Belmont a 2-1 advantage in the bottom of the first with his first
of three homeruns of the day - a two-run shot to left
field.
Another double from Emory
proved to be a run for the Hatters in the third inning, which tied
the game at two. The Bruins would respond with an inning that would
spark the offensive for the rest of the day. The five-run fourth
inning started with a leadoff homerun from senior Packy Elkins to take
a 3-2 lead. Later in the fourth, with the bases loaded and two out,
junior Derek
Hamblen hit a grand slam to give BU a 7-2 lead.
"Derek's grand slam homerun in
the first game really just set us free offensively and got us on a
roll which lasted the rest of the day," Head Coach Davis Jarvis
said. "We didn't panic, we didn't get down and we didn't press the
way that you could after getting beat the day before. Our kids had
a very good offensive approach."
The Bruins put up another five
runs in the sixth inning. Woods had a two-run double, and Elkins
cleared the bases with a three-run double to give BU a 12-2 lead.
In the seventh inning Woods hit another RBI double to give Belmont
a 13-3 lead and enforce the A-Sun's 10-run rule. The rule, which is
only enforced with a 10-run lead on game one of a conference
doubleheader, ended the game with one out in the bottom of the
seventh.
Senior Packy Elkins had
four RBI in the first game and homered in both games to bring his
season homerun total to 10. Starting in 158 games prior to his
senior season, Elkins has already passed his career homerun total
of nine from his first three seasons as a Bruin.
In the second game, Stetson
took an early 2-0 lead, but Belmont responded with five runs in the
third inning and seven runs in the fourth inning. In that span of
two innings, the Bruins hit four homeruns as each player that
reached base also crossed the plate.
Senior Mark Noth had a banner
day in game two, nearly hitting for the cycle with his first
homeruns of the season, a triple, and a double to cap off a 3-for-4
performance.
Freshman Josh Davis (2-2)
pitched 3 2/3 of relief with three strikeouts to receive the game
two win.
In total, Belmont pitching
held Stetson to seven runs and only walked four with 12 strikeouts
on Saturday.
"You have to get a lot of
credit to our pitching staff this weekend," Jarvis said. "Outside
of Frank
Adelman's three walks in the second game today, we only walked
two batters this weekend. When you make teams put the ball in play
with the speed and the defense that we have, then good things are
going to happen for our team and pitching staff."
After Davis, Tyler Graskewicz
pitched a 1-2-3 seventh, followed by two innings and three
strikeouts from Jon
Ivie.
"After the game I told the
team that I didn't see anybody do anything that they were not
capable of doing," Jarvis said. "It wasn't like anybody
over-achieved today, we just had everybody grinding-it-out, staying
on-top and making sure they didn't give away any at-bats and it
paid off."
The Bruins return to action on
Tuesday, traveling to Clarksville, Tenn., for a night game with
Austin Peay beginning at 6 p.m.
