Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The sixth seeded Belmont baseball team (33-24, 17-13) defeated top seeded Stetson (40-17, 23-7) by a score of 15-3 in the first round of the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships on Wednesday afternoon. Junior Matt Hamann (Northbrook, Ill.) recorded yet another outstanding outing on the mound, allowing one run on three hits in six innings of action.
Hamann recorded his ninth win of the season, improving to 9-1 with the victory. He now leads the A-Sun in wins on the mound and tied a Belmont single-season record for victories for a pitcher. The Bruins are now 13-4 against the Hatters in the last five years. It was the first time since 2005 that the sixth seeded defeated the number one seed to open the tournament. BU is now 8-6 on the season against teams inside the RPI Top 50.
The Bruins picked up right where they left off in DeLand last weekend, scoring three runs over the first two innings to take an early 3-0 lead over the Hatters. Senior Derek Hamblen (Plano, Texas) walked to lead off the game, and then took second with his team-leading 25th stolen base of the year. He then scored when senior Matt Zeblo (Raleigh, N.C.) doubled to right center field. Things were much easier in the second as Hamblen drove in sophomore Jared Breen (Marietta, Ga.) on a long home run over the left field wall.
After a pair of scoreless innings in the third and fourth, Belmont got way out on top of the Hatters with 10 runs combined in the fifth and sixth innings. The Bruins got the best of Stetson starter Lindsey Caughel as junior Dylan Craig (Signal Mountain, Tenn.) singled up the middle, senior Nate Woods (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) homered to left field, and Zeblo walked. Woods' home run tied him with senior Tim Egerton (Smyrna, Tenn.) for the team lead with 12. Joe Dye came in to relieve Caughel but the Bruin success continued. A walk by Egerton and a two-RBI double by freshman Greg Brody (Dacula, Ga.) made it 7-0 in favor of BU.
Two new Hatter pitchers were no help in the sixth as the Bruins put six more runs on the board to make it 13-1. Five Belmont singles, including two by junior Zac Mitchell (Cordova, Tenn.) who led off the inning, helped put the Bruins on top. Mitchell, Zeblo, and Egerton all drove in runs during the frame, while sophomore Judah Akers (Cookeville, Tenn.) tallied two on a single to left field.
Hamann, who kept the Hatters at bay for most of the contest, had a no-hitter going in the fifth inning, before a double by Mitchel Brennan broke it up for the Bruin starter. A walk and another double later, and Hamann had given up his first and only run of the day. He came back in to shut down Stetson in the sixth before being relieved by junior Brandon Frensley (Hendersonville, Tenn.) to start the seventh.
Frensley put the Hatters down in order in the seventh before both teams scored two runs in the eighth to make it 15-3. Brody doubled for the second time of the day, increasing his team-leading double total to 20 on the season. The freshman is now tied for the third most doubles in a single-season in Belmont history, trailing category leader Hamblen (2010) by four two-base hits.
Freshman pitcher James Buckelew (Suwanee, Ga.) came in to close things out in the ninth, shutting the Hatters down in four batters. The Bruins finished with 15 runs on 14 hits and two errors. No Belmont player recorded more than two hits in the game, but Zeblo, Egerton, Brody, and Akers all tallied two in the victory. With three runs scored, Hamblen broke the Belmont single-season record for runs with 65.
The top seeded Hatters finished with three runs on six hits and two errors. Caughel picked up the loss after allowing six runs on six hits and three walks. Nick Rickles and Robert Crews led Stetson with two hits in the defeat.
Belmont, who defeated Stetson for the third straight time this season, will move on in the winners' bracket of the A-Sun Championships. The Bruins will play against the loser of tonight's final game between third seeded Kennesaw State and fourth seeded Mercer at 3:00 p.m. CT on Thursday at Lipscomb.
Check out post-game interviews with Head Coach Dave Jarvis, Derek Hamblen, and Matt Hamann.
Click here for recap of the Bruin victory at AtlanticSun.org
Click here for Atlantic Sun Insider Blog Entry
Click here for Photo Gallery of Belmont vs. Stetson
