Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The Belmont University baseball team (10-8) battled back to knock off Eastern Kentucky, 6-5 in game two of the weekend series, Saturday afternoon at E.S. Rose Park.
Kyle Klotz (Fairview, Tenn.) earned his second victory of the season and Brennan Washington (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) came on in the ninth to nail down his second save of the season.
The Bruins faced an early 3-0 deficit, but a three-homerun by Washington in the bottom fourth helped Belmont storm back. The Bruins found their groove offensively in the middle innings as they combined to score six runs in innings 4-6.
Freshman Casey Queener (Brentwood, Tenn.) made his third start of the season and finished with 3.2 innings pitched, allowing three earned runs. Queener faced a veteran EKU lineup and also dealt with some very gusty Rose Park winds.
"Well Brennan's homerun got us back in the game, there's no question about that, but Casey Queener did a great job to battle for us and minimize the damage. Casey's work allowed Brennan to have a shot at getting us back in the thick of things. Big time plays on both of their parts," said Head Coach Dave Jarvis after the victory.
Along with some timely hitting and solid work on the base paths, the Belmont bullpen played a critical role in Saturday's success as Klotz, Connor Etheridge (Springfield, Ill.) and Washington totaled 5.1 innings pitched, allowing just one earned run.
Rafael Bournigal (Mulberry, Fla.) and Clay Payne (Powell, Tenn.) finished with multi-hit games for BU.
Klotz and Etheridge helped provide some stability for Belmont in a game which was very much up for grabs.
"I'm proud of our team's effort today, we responded to the adversity we faced. Big win for us," added Jarvis.
After Belmont's ninth inning rally was cut short last night, EKU faced a similar fate Saturday as it had the tieing run on second and the winning run on first in the top of the ninth, but EKU's Shea Sullivan lined in to a game-ending double play.
Washington provided a lift for Belmont with a crucial three-run homerun and did so on the mound with a scoreless ninth inning.
Belmont got on the board in the fourth with Washington's third long ball of the young season. Bournigal and Chas Hadden (Morristown, Tenn.) set the table as Bournigal reached on a single and hadden a base on balls. Each runner moved up a base after an the EKU shortstop mishandled a pick off throw to second base.
After tallying a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth, Belmont scored the eventual game-winning run in the bottom of the sixth. Payne, who had some very loud outs on the game, reached on a bloop to centerfield to set up the Belmont rally. Payne would eventually cross the plate on an RBI single through the left side by Kyle Conger (Brentwood, Tenn.).
Belmont and EKU meet tomorrow for the rubber match at 1 p.m. at Rose Park.
