LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Spalding University baseball team took a pair of games from Fontbonne Friday afternoon, 4-3 and 8-7. With the win the Golden Eagles improve to 14-7 overall and 6-2 in SLIAC play, while Fontbonne drops to 6-13 and 1-4 in conference play.
In the opening game, the Golden Eagles rallied from two runs down in the seventh inning to win, 3-4, on a
Casey Gibson sacrifice fly to center field.
Kam Bruner led SU hitters going 2-for-3 and scoring a run.
Nic Chafin,
Casey Gibson and
Blake Patterson each had one RBI.
Aaron Mitchell (4-1) earned the win, allowing three runs, one earned, while scattering five hits and striking out five batters.
The Golden Eagles fell behind in the third when an
Austin Drake error on a deep fly ball put a Nick Rothweiler on second and Aaron Boyer drove him in with a sacrifice groundout to second base. Spalding answered in the bottom of the inning when Nick Chafin grounded into a double play allowing Gibson to advance home to knot the score at one run apiece. Fontbonne added a run in the fifth and seventh innings putting SU in the 3-1 hole heading into the bottom of the seventh. Bruner led off with a double to center field and scored on a Patterson double to left-center.
Blake Patterson tied the game racing home on a passed ball, and
Matt Harper beat the throw to home on Gibson's fly ball to center field to score the game-winning run.
In game two, the Golden Eagle bats came alive scoring eight runs on 12 hits to edge the Griffins, 8-7.
Dillon Sievert and
Kam Bruner led SU at the plate driving in seven of eight Golden Eagle runs. Sievert went 3-for-4 with three RBIs, while Bruner with 2-for-4 with four RBIs.
Jimi Keating (4-2) got the win, giving up four runs on eight hits while striking out six batters and walking three.
Dillon Sievert put the Golden Eagles on the board with an RBI single that scored
Blake Patterson to get SU out to a 1-0 lead. Fontbonne plated two runs in the fourth inning to pull ahead, 2-1. However, SU scored four runs in the bottom half of the inning, highlighted by a
Kam Bruner three-run homer to push the Golden Eagles back in front, 5-2. SU added a run in the fifth when Sievert singled up the middle scoring
Jacob Woodruff to give Spalding a four-run cushion. Fontbonne took a pair of runs back in the top of the sixth to cut SU's lead to two runs at 6-4. In the seventh, Bruner sent deep fly ball to left field scoring
Austin Drake from third to push the lead back to three runs heading into the eighth inning, and Sievert singled to left center scoring
Brad Speek from second to make it 8-4. Fontbonne would score three runs in the top of the ninth, but a fly out to right field would end the game.
The Golden Eagles will be back in action Saturday, April 2 hosting a double header against Eureka College starting at 2:00 p.m. EST.
