Box Score LITTLE ROCK ? The UALR baseball team (7-2) stranded 14 bases runners Wednesday night and left the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth as Eastern Michigan (3-5) hung on for a 7-6 victory at Gary Hogan Field.
“We did not handle last night's success very well today, and we're going to work on that,” said UALR head coach Scott Norwood. “I give credit to Eastern Michigan. They outplayed us today.”
UALR tied things up at 5-all in the bottom of the fourth, but went scoreless for the next four innings as the Eagles regained the lead. Trailing 7-5 at the start of the ninth, junior Jake Rowell gave the Trojans some life with a leadoff double. Reliever Taylor Dimmerling managed to get outs from the next two Trojans he faced, but senior Landis Wilson delivered a two-out, RBI single to make it a 7-6 contest.
Dimmerling followed up Wilson's single by hitting the next two batters to load the bases with two outs, but EMU called on reliever Brett Cisper and the 6-1 right-hander struck out the first batter he faced to preserve the victory and pick up his third save of the year.
EMU's Ken Battiston went 2-for-6 with three runs scored in the win, belting a two-run homer in the top of the fifth to break a 5-5 tie.
Rowell led the Trojans with a 3-for-5 day at the plate, scoring two runs and hitting a pair of doubles, while Wilson went 2-for-3 with a game-high three RBI.
Eastern Michigan jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first after Battiston sparked the Eagles with a leadoff triple off the wall in right. Battiston scored from third on a dropped fly ball in left, and the Eagles used the error and two free passes (walk and a hit batter) to load the bases with no outs on the board.
EMU scored its second run of the inning when Ben Magsig scored from third on a ground ball by Zack Leonard, but the Eagles were unable to score any more runs as starter Scott Keffer got outs from the next two batters he faced to leave the bags full.
The Eagles loaded the bases once again in the second, but junior Travis Henke came on in relief of Keffer and held the visitors to just one run as EMU left the bases full for the second-straight frame.
Down 3-0, the Trojans manufactured a pair of runs in the bottom of the second to make it a 3-2 contest. Junior Casey McCollum opened the frame with a leadoff single and senior Nate Brown drew a walk to put two runners on with no outs. After McCollum stole third, Wilson plated both runners with a two-run double to left center.
The Eagles answered in the top of the third, pushing across two more runs to extend their lead back to three runs, 5-2. Kinder and Magsig both delivered RBI singles in the frame as EMU went back on top by three.
UALR responded with a pair of runs in the bottom half to make it a one-run game once again. Rowell followed up a leadoff single by senior Tyson Parks with a double to right, as the Trojans put two runners on with no outs. Parks scored from third on a sacrifice fly by McCollum, and Rowell came around to score from second moments later on a RBI single down the right field line by Brown.
The Trojans evened things up in the bottom of the fourth thanks to some heads up base running by junior Bryce Killingsworth. The Hartshorne, Okla.-native was hit by a pitch to start the inning off and quickly moved up to third on a pair of wild pitches by Joe Battistelli. He came around to score the tying run from third on a RBI groundout by Houston.
EMU's Aaron Crooks hit a leadoff double at the start of the fifth to chase Henke from the game with the score tied 5-all. Junior Garret Graziano came on in relief of Henke and struck out the first batter he faced before surrendering the two-run blast to Battiston.
The Trojans went quietly after the fourth inning, managing just five hits over 6.1 frames against Battistelli and Dimmerling. Battistelli (1-0) got the win in relief of Combs after striking out five while holding the Trojans to three hits and a run over 3.2 frames.
Dimmerling was able to work his way out of a jam in the seventh, after allowing the first two Trojans to reach base, then retired UALR in order in the eighth. He wasn't as fortunate in the ninth, as a leadoff double by Rowell led to a RBI single by Wilson to bring the Trojans within one, 7-6. Dimmerling then hit the next two batters he faced to load the bases, but Cisper was able to bail him out.
UALR returns to action this weekend when it welcomes IPFW to Gary Hogan Field for a three-game series starting Friday at 6 p.m.
