Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn.- The Belmont University (28-21, 14-11 OVC) battled, but fell in 13 innings, 6-4 to the visiting Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles (26-21, 13-12 OVC) Friday night at E.S. Rose Park.
Kyle Conger (Brentwood, Tenn.) extended his hitting streak to 15 games as he was one of three hitters to register multi-hit games; one of othesr was Hunter Holland (Soddy Daisy, Tenn.) who homered for the fifth time on the year. Desi Ammons (Hohenwald, Tenn.) also added a pair of base knocks.
Belmont struck out a season-high 21 times and committed five errors in the hard-fought loss, but had many chances to steal a win despite the miscues.
Lost in translation was the outstanding effort of senior RHP Aaron Quillen (Kingsport, Tenn.), who received a no-decision despite eight innings of strong work and 12 strikeouts.
The Friday night pitching matchup certainly lived up to advanced billing, as both starting hurlers logged eight innings pitched and held the opposing team to three runs or fewer. Both starters threw over 130 pitches.
In 15 prior career appearances at Rose Park, Quillen carried a 3.00 ERA, so a quality performance was to be expected, and the senior certainly delivered. Quillen logged eight innings while scattering six hits and striking out 12 and allowing three earned. The veteran righty registered a career-high 137 pitches as he turned in an admirable performance in his last time on his home mound. He got sharper and sharper as the game went on, and as the pitch count grew, so did Quillen's confidence.
His counterpart, RHP Michael Wood, stymied the Bruins with nine innings of work. Wood allowed six hits and struck out 11. After the starters exited, it became a battle of the bullpens, and while the Belmont relieving core was strong, the Golden Eagles' pen was every bit the equal. Ethan Roberts twirled four innings and struck out 10 Bruins in his four innings of work, allowing just one run. Roberts picked up his sixth win of the season.
With his strikeout in the fourth, Quillen tied the all-time single season strikeout record at Belmont set by David Wells in 1999. Then when he struck out a TTU batter in the top of the fifth, he set the Belmont record with his 102nd punchout of the season. Quillen's 103rd strikeout of the year helped him escape a first and second jam to end the fifth inning.
After Tennessee Tech opened the scoring in top of the third by way of a two-run homer by Kevin Strohschein, Belmont struck for two scores in the bottom of the stanza when Clay Payne (Powell, Tenn.) and Tyler Walsh (Evansville, Ind.) came around to score. Payne led off the frame with a double before Walsh reached on a bunt to the third basemen. With runners on both first and third, Conger came through with an infield basehit in which Payne came around to score and Walsh advanced to third on an errant throw by the TTU second basemen. Walsh scored on a fielder's choice groundout by Chas Hadden (Morristown, Tenn.)
TTU added a solo homer in the top of the fourth, and the score stood at 3-2 in favor of the Golden Eagles until the bottom of the sixth, when Holland continued his recent power surge with a solo homer over the left field wall. Holland now has four homers in his last six games.
Facing a bases loaded, one-out jam in the top of the sixth, Quillen reached back for a little something extra, twirling back-to-back punchouts to slam the door on the Golden Eagles. The senior kept Belmont in position to win.
Through innings seven through nine, the Bruins and Golden Eagles were locked in stalemate, and with the score tied at 3-3, extra innings were in the cards.
After Quillen departed with eight innings of terrific pitching under his belt, Dom Veltri (Clarksville, Tenn.) followed suit with three strong innings of his own, taking over in the ninth.
Tennessee Tech struck first in the top of the 10th, as a pair of Belmont errors proved costly. Strohschein, who entered with an average above .400, doubled to left off Veltri. The junior righty recorded a popout, only to see the next batter reach on an error by BU third basemen Ben Kocher (Zionsville, Ind.). With runners on first and second, Chase Chambers singled through the rightside to load the bases. Next, Veltri induced what looked to be either a 6-4-3 double play or a 6-2 put out at the plate, but neither option would materialize as Conger committed his 10th error of the year on the play. Strohschein would score on the miscue and TTU carried a 4-3 lead into the last of the 10th.
After a Kocher groundout led off the bottom of the 10th, pinch hitter Rafael Bournigal (Mulberry, Fla.) reached on a hot-shot basehit to the third basemen to begin the early stages of a Belmont rally. On a 2-0 count, Conger had a measure of redemption when he singled to right and moved Bournigal up to third base. After Hadden struck out on a 3-2 foul tip into the glove of the catcher, it was senior Tyler Fullerton (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) who came through on the first Roberts' pitch he saw, fisting a basehit up the middle to tie at 4. With the potential game-winning run at second in the person of Conger, Brennan Washington (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) struck out to diminish the threat.
Both teams exchanged scoreless frames in the 11th and 12th before it was TTU who broke the standoff with a two-run top of the 13th. After Josh Tubbs (Camden, Tenn.) logged a scoreless 12th in relief of Veltri, he ran into some trouble in the 13th as the Golden Eagles opened the frame with a basehit and a sac bunt to put the go-ahead run on second with just one out. With first base open and the ever-dangerous Strohschein batting, Belmont elected to intentionally walk him and take its chances with the TTU pinch hitter, Brazelton. Again the Bruin defense would have a lapse as what looked to be a 5-4-3 double play - or at least a 5-4 putout - resulted in an error on the second basemen Holland, who could not handle the throw from Kocher. Tubbs rebounded and recorded a line out to shortstop, but with two outs and the bases filled to capacity, it was TTU's Chambers who laced one into the right center gap to score the eventual game-winning runs.
Holland would reach on a single in the 13th, but Ammons struckout swinging to conclude the back-and-forth contest.
The Bruins and Golden Eagles meet Saturday at 1 p.m. CT at Rose Park in game two of the weekend series.
