Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The Belmont University baseball team (6-6) battled but fell 8-4, to visiting Southern Illinois, Tuesday evening at E.S. Rose Park.
Brennan Washington (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) continued his hot start to 2016 as he finished 3-for-4 and reached base four times. Washington also pitched a scoreless inning and made a sensational play to gun a SIU runner down at third base.
Alex Ward (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) was saddled with his first loss of the season.
Rafael Bournigal (Mulberry, Fla.) recorded a pair of hits and drove in and scored a run. Chas Hadden (Morristown, Tenn.) reached base three times with a pair of hits and drove in two runs, while Ben Kocher (Zionsville, Ind.) got on on three occassions and notched a hit and an RBI.
Seven Bruin pitchers saw action.
After starter Dylan King (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) tossed a scoreless opening frame, the Saluki bats rallied for a four run top of the second to get out to an early lead. King bounced back with a scoreless third inning.
Belmont struck first with a score in the first inning when Hadden singled to right to drive in Kocher
After what would be King's final frame, the top of the third, the Bruins scored for the second time in the bottom of the stanza. The first basemen, Hadden, again came through when he singled up the middle and drove in Bournigal.
Christopher Carroll (Hendersonville, Tenn.) pitched a scorless fourth inning before BU came back with a two-run bottom of the inning. Kocher drove in Belmont's third run of the game when his basehit resulted in his team-high 14th RBI. Bournigal picked up an RBI with a basehit to plate BU's fourth tally of the game. After four innings of action the scoreboard read 4-4.
The Bruins put pressure on Southern Illinois and several times threatened, but could not break through as they were held scoreless over the course of the final five innings.
Both teams exchanged zeros in the fifth inning before Southern Illinois got to Ward who entered into pitch the sixth inning. Ward, in relief of Kyle Klotz (Fairview, Tenn.) who blanked the Salukis in previous inning, was charged with two earned in his lone inning of duty.
Southern Illinois would push across two more runs in the top of the seventh to extend its lead to 8-4.
Washington and Tyler Vaughn (Jonesboro, Ill.) tossed scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth, respectively.
The Salukis outhit the Bruins, 13-10.
Belmont returns to action Friday, March 11 when it welcomes another Illinois institution to Nashville, in Northern Illinois for a three-game set at Rose Park.
