Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Scoring the go-ahead run off a sacrifice fly from freshman Drew Lowry, the Belmont baseball team defeated Evansville 4-3 in 11 innings on Saturday at Rose Park.
The victory marked the second time in the last three years where the Bruins have won back-to-back extra inning games, defeating Northwestern on May 18-19, 2018. Starting pitcher Logan Bowen collected a career high eight strikeouts, with senior Justin Fowlkes earning his first win of the season and his eighth career win.
"I was looking for something up in the zone to get in the air, deep enough to score that run," Lowry said. "I got it on the first pitch, so it worked out."
Evansville struck first in the top of the first inning following a leadoff single and loading the bases off a Belmont error and a hit by pitch, coming up with a single up the middle to bring in the game's first two runs. Following a solo home run in the top of the fourth inning by Evansville, Belmont got runners at the corners after an Evansville error and a single to center field by senior Chandler Adkins in the next half-inning.
The Bruins succeeded off the double steal attempt, scoring a run off freshman Brodey Heaton stealing home to cut the deficit 3-1. Heaton's stolen home base marks the first time a Belmont player stole home since Desi Ammons on March 4, 2016 against Youngstown State.
"To our team's credit, they didn't panic. They were able to regroup and get refocused," head coach Dave Jarvis said. "I felt like our kids did a good job of dealing with some adversity, getting refocused and turning things around there."
Heaton's first career home run in the bottom of the sixth inning made it a one-run game, with Belmont pitching five consecutive shutout innings heading into the bottom of the ninth. Adkins led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a single to right field, where Belmont would get a runner in scoring position off a wild pitch with one out.
A groundout to Evasnville's second baseman advanced a runner to third base and was followed by an RBI single from junior Jackson Campbell to tie the game 3-3.
"It's a huge weight off my shoulders," Campbell said. "I kind of pressed a little bit and I wasn't getting anything to fall. I finally got that hit. It's baseball. It's a nice feeling, especially when it leads to a win."
Senior Michael Matter and Fowlkes only allowed one hit in the 10th and 11th innings to Evansville, with Carson Shacklett leading off the bottom of the 11th inning with a double up the middle to put the go-ahead run in scoring position. Freshman Chase Katafias hit a sacrifice bunt to advance Shacklett to third base and Evansville elected to intentionally walk the next two batters to load the bases.
Lowry came up with his second RBI of the season in the next at-bat, driving in Shacklett for the go-ahead run for Belmont's second consecutive 11th inning walk-off.
"There's no quit in this team," Campbell said. "We're definitely very resilient. There was no point in the game where we felt like we were down or the game was out of reach. It was a great mentality all the way through in the game."
Belmont looks for the sweep of the Turface Classic, facing Bradley on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Rose Park.
