NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Belmont baseball team travels for its first road game on Tuesday against North Alabama at 4 p.m.
The Bruins are coming off a five-game winning streak, sweeping their competition in the Turface Classic and winning off three consecutive walk-offs.
"We haven't played perfectly by any means, but this group has done a great job," head coach Dave Jarvis said. "If one side of the ball has struggled a little bit, then the other side has come through and picked them up. When you get that going on, it's a lot of fun to coach and it's a lot of fun to be around."
After senior Hagan Severance hit a walk-off home run in the 11h inning to defeat Missouri State on Friday, freshman Drew Lowry was the hero in both Saturday and Sunday's game. With the bases loaded against Evansville on Saturday, Lowry hit a sacrifice fly to bring in the go-ahead run.
Belmont trailed by as many as five runs in Sunday's game against Bradley, but managed to come all the way back thanks to a four-run seventh inning. Lowry came up with the RBI single that allowed the Bruins to complete the comeback.
"We've had a lot of adversity already before our season even began with some injuries and things like that," Jarvis said. "This team has had a mindset of being able to handle adversity, being able to deal with that and move on. To their credit, they've had a tremendous next man up mentality and that's really important."
Along with the 5-0 effort last week, Belmont junior pitcher Kyle Brennan was named the OVC Pitcher of the Week on Monday. Brennan earned two wins and two saves during Belmont's five-game winning streak, playing a crucial role in the extra innings win over Missouri State on Friday by pitching the final 2.1 innings and collecting three strikeouts.
The Franklin, Tenn., native tied Blake Owen (2005) and Josh Davis (2010-13) for eighth on the program's most career saves list with 13.
"It's a great honor, but without the rest of the staff pitching great and the hitters' timel hitting, I wouldn't have been in those positions this week," Brennan said. "Hats off to those guys."
Game Notes
Scouting North Alabama
North Alabama comes into Tuesday's game with a 1-7 record, the only win coming in the second game of a doubleheader on Feb. 15 against Ohio. The Lions have struggled to collect offense so far this season, hitting .197 with two home runs. North Alabama has a fielding percentage of .955 and has held their opposing batting average to .255.
Devne Daniel has had the best batting average on the team, hitting one of the team's two home runs while hitting .500. Kevin Brenning is hitting .276 and leads the team with eight hits and 11 total bases. The Lions' probable pitcher is Cosi Scinta, who has pitched 1.1 innings and has collected two strikeouts while only giving up one hit without a run.
