Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Behind 17 strikeouts from the pitching staff, the Belmont University baseball team won its season opener against North Alabama 5-1 on Tuesday at Rose Park.
The pitching staff's performance marked the first time since March 4, 2016 where Belmont forced at least 15 strikeouts as a team. Sophomore Joshua South struck out five batters in two innings pitched in his first start of the season while junior Logan Bowen picked up his first win of the season. Junior Kyle Brennan picked up his 15th career save, moving into a tie with Jimmy Stanley (2007-09) and Robbie McNair (1988-91) for fifth on the program's all-time career save list.
"It's just awesome to be able to get back out here on the field. Our guys did a pretty good job of picking up right where we left off from 2020 and starting 2021 on the right foot," head coach Dave Jarvis said. "Our pitching staff did a really good job. We had a lot of guys out there and we got them a good touch. We created a good situation for them with that. I felt like our hitters put up some pretty good at-bats throughout the course of the game. We were able to work some blocks, work some good counts and we had a few good two-strike at-bats that were productive. This is absolutely a good way to get the season started."
Following three shutout innings, the Belmont bats got cooking in the bottom of the fourth inning. Junior Jackson Campbell collected a one-out single, with freshman Drew Lowry driving in the game's first run with an RBI double. Freshman Austin Ehren, who made his first career start, recorded his first collegiate single and collected an RBI to put the Bruins ahead 2-0.
Sophomore Jack Capobianco scored off a wild pitch later in the inning to put the Bruins ahead 3-0.
"We had a rough game against (North Alabama) last year, so I think that played a part in it," Lowry said. "Once Jackson had the hit and I had a hit after that, we started putting (hits) together and the pressure came off of us and we started playing like we should."
John Behrends came up with his first collegiate triple to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning, with two hit-by-pitches loading the bases for Belmont. Capobianco extended Belmont's lead out to five runs thanks to a two-RBI single with two outs.
Two walks and a wild pitch in the top of the eighth inning set up North Alabama's first run of the game off a Belmont fielding error. Coming in with North Alabama having the tying run on deck, Brennan collected two strikeouts and forced a fly out in the outfield to retire the side. The Franklin, Tenn. native forced the Lions to go down in order in the final half-inning to seal the second consecutive opening day win for Belmont.
"(The pitching) helped us so much in this game, especially because we didn't score until the fourth inning," Ehren said. "Our pitchers really helped us out. We knew we had to score first in order to win this game and that's what we did."
Belmont (1-0) continues non-conference play against Northern Kentucky on Friday at 4 p.m. at Rose Park.
