The Buccaneer baseball team split a pair of high scoring games that featured 28 Beloit hits including eight for extra bases. The opener was a thriller but ended in a 13-11 Bucs' loss to Augustana College after 11 innings. Beloit bounced back with a 14-3, seven-inning win over Muhlenberg to wrap up the day.
The Buc bats really got going in the later frames against the Vikings with Beloit plating two, three and four runs in consecutive innings. The big, four-run, eighth featured a three-run homer from
Garrison Ferone and a RBI base on balls drawn by
Deven Irwin that gave the Bucs a 10-4-lead.
Augustana responded with a grand slam in the bottom half of the frame to cut the lead to two, 10-8. A single in the bottom of the ninth plated two for the Vikings sent the game into extras.
Neither team was able to push a run across in the 10th but the Bucs did take the lead in the 11th. With one out,
AJ Fitzpatrick singled to center and
James Wicker followed with another base knock to put two runners on. A fielder's choice had the defense opting for the out at second to leave runners at the corners.
Matt O'Leary gave the Bucs the lead with an RBI single to center that plated Fitzpatrick.
Beloit registered the first two outs of the bottom of the 11th on a line out and a groundout before a single kept the inning alive. A hit batter was followed by a walkoff three-run homer for Augustana.
O'Leary was 5-for-6 at the plate in the game to lead the Buc offense. Ferone added a pair of hits and four RBI while Irwin drove in three runs.
Thomas Kosakowski was tapped for the start and went 4.1 innings for a no decision.
Kaiya Nishino took over on the mound for 4.2 innings of work before
Miles Souza came in for the final 1.2 innings.
Following the extra inning heartbreaker, the Bucs went right back to it. The bats heated up in the third with Beloit scoring three runs on three hits to take a 3-1 lead in the game.
Muhlenberg knotted the game 3-3 in the top of the fourth but Beloit had a hefty response in store for the fifth and sixth innings.
The bottom of the fifth saw six Beloit runs cross the plate courtesy of six hits and six RBI that reclaimed a 9-3 lead for the Bucs. The innings was bolstered by a two-RBI
Jake Rudolph double down the left field line.
The run party continued in the sixth with five more Beloit runs coming in to score. However, the path to scoring was much different. Ferone opened the frame taking one for the team. Following a popup, the next two batters drew walks to load the bases.
Evan Zenger put the ball in play and a fielding error had two runners score. Another error on a groundout on the next play made it 12-3. A walk and a wild pitch advanced both Bucs into scoring position and O'Leary capitalized with a double right center to make it 14-3.
Beloit got out of a bases loaded jam in the top of the seventh to force an end to the game early via the 10-run rule.
James Wicker was 2-for-4 at the dish with an RBI and a run scored while O'Leary was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBI and a runs scored to lead the Buc offense.
Aiden Phipps picked up the win on the mound striking out three while allowing one earned run in six innings of work.
