On a cold, windy day at The Ballpark at Strong Stadium, the Beloit College baseball team split with the University of Chicago to hand the Maroons their first Midwest Conference loss of the season.
The Bucs dropped the opener 15-7 after leaving 11 runners on base in the contest and having a few uncharacteristic defensive miscues.
Garrison Ferone led the Beloit offense at the plate going 3-for-5 with a three-run blast.
Tommy Murray suffered the loss in four innings of work to move to 1-1 on the season.
The Buccaneers came back from a 4-0 first inning deficit in the nightcap.
Miles Souza sparked the offense and got the Bucs on the board with a dinger to centerfield in the bottom of the third inning to make it 4-1.
The Bucs added a pair of runs in the fourth with
Matt O'Leary doubling down the left field line for an RBI and a groundout that brought in one more.
Beloit exploded in the bottom of the seventh for four runs.
Drew Freitag drew a leadoff walk to open the frame. Souza followed with the second straight base on balls to chase the Maroon starter.
Brett Kiger walked to the plate for a pinch hit appearance.
A wild pitch moved both runners into scoring position as Kiger ended up drawing a pinch hit walk to load the bases and chase the Maroon hurler.
Matt Crandall capitalized on a base knock to right field that plated two runs.
Evan Zenger followed with a grounder that slowed on the grass infield. Zenger's speed forced an errant throw to bring in one more and put runners on the corners. A fielder's choice from Ferone brought in the final run of the inning to give Beloit a 7-4 advantage.
The top of the eighth was filled web gems for the Bucs on defense. Following a leadoff single to center, Beloit hurler
Harvey Pena got the next Maroon swinging as the runner took off for second.
Greg Nelson fired to second and Ferone went up for a slightly high throw, hauled it in and brought his glove down for the tag while he was still in the air for the "strike em out, throw em out." On the next batter,
AJ Fitzpatrick had a gem of his own on a liner that was slicing toward the right field line. The speedy outfielder had a bead on the ball and with a great jump, went full extension on the layout for the diving snag.
The Bucs added a single run in the bottom of the eighth before holding Chicago in the top of the ninth for the win.
O'Leary led Beloit at the dish going 2-for-3 at the plate. Pena picked up the win in relief to move to 1-1 on the season.
