Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The Belmont University baseball team suffered its first setback of the season, as it fell 23-5 to the Illinois State Redbirds, Saturday afternoon at E.S. Rose Park.
Freshman Hunter Holland (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) paced the Bruin offense with three hits, including his first collegiate homerun. Teammate Brennan Washington (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) registered a pair of hits including his first homerun of the year. Chas Hadden (Morristown, Tenn.) and Alex Ward (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) also drove in runs for the Bruins.
Freshman pitcher Dylan King (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) was saddled with the loss as he logged 1.2 innings pitched in his first collegiate start. Many of the bounces just did not go Belmont's way Saturday afternoon, and one those bounces occured in the first inning and in a way set the tone for how the remainder of the contest would play out. With two runners on base in this top of the first, ISU's Brian Rodemoyer drove both runners in as his hit down the right field line managed to just narrowly remain in fair territory. BU rightfielder Clay Payne (Powell, Tenn.) came in charging hard but was unable to get to it as it would go for a double. The Redbirds would add another run to jump out to a 3-0 advantage before the Bruins even came to the dish.
Belmont for the second straight contest trailed before it was its turn to bat, but this time the Bruins could not answer the bell. Illinois State's senior starting pitcher Steve Heilenbach did a great job of keeping the Belmont batters off balance as he went five innings with only allowing one hit.
Illinois State scored runs in six innings, including a 10 run fifth.
King and seven relievers dealt with a tall task, as collectively the Illinois State batters battled all game long getting deep into counts and forcing the BU hurlers to make good pitches. Seven other Bruins would see time on the mound, freshman Austin Krzeminski (Roswell, Ga.) was the longest tenured pitcher of that group as he lasted 2.1 innings and struck out three. Kyle Klotz (Fairview, Tenn.) threw a scoreless inning and struck out three while Ward, (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) the hitting star at the plate during last night's game, also blanked the Redbirds during his inning of work.
The Bruins and Redbirds conclude their three-game set tomorrow afternoon at Rose Park. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. CT as junior pitcher Dom Veltri (Clarksville, Tenn.) will look to help guide BU to its first series victory of the young 2016 campaign.
