The Cleveland State baseball team brought out the big lumber on Sunday afternoon at Cougar Field for the rubber game of their three game weekend set with Vincennes University. After splitting a doubleheader on Saturday, the Cougars had just enough time to get the game in before the rains descended on Cleveland.
The home team provided starting pitcher, Brandon Zajac with all the run support he would require with a seven run second inning pounding out 13 hits in the contest to take an 11-1 decision over the Trailblazers and two out of three in the series.
The Trailblazers struck first with a run in their first turn at the plate as a leadoff walk came around to score on a groudout for a 1-0 lead.
The Cougars got that run back and added six more in the bottom of the second. A pair of one-out walks started the rally while three straight singles plated those walks as Zach Janes and Michael Hargrove singled in a run each. Jared Davis drew a free pass with the bases full of Cougars to push a run across and Chase Edwards promptly unloaded them with one swing of his bat as he air-mailed a fastball into the trees beyond the left field fence for a grand slam home run and a 7-1 Cougars lead.
The Cougars went back to work an inning later. DeAndre Allen tripled into the right field corner and scored on an error as the throw to third sailed high and out of play. Another Trailblazer miscue put a runner on second for Davis who singled him home and Edwards continued his good work at the dish by plating the third run of the frame with a single for a 10-1 Cougar advantage.
The Cougars tacked on one more run in the bottom of the sixth as Evan Speicher singled to lead off the frame and later came around to score after a walk and a hit batsman loaded the bases for Hargrove who drew a walk himself to force in the eventual winning run.
Haydn Bailey tossed two scoreless innings in relief of Zajac to finish the win.
"It's always good to win the series, we swung the bats well and pitched well all except for one inning on Saturday," explained Cougar coach Mike Policastro."Vincennes is a good team, and overall it was a good weekend."
Zajac tossed five strong innings allowing only two hits and one run and fanned six to pick up the win for the Cougars (4-1) while Shane Weedman suffered the loss for Vincennes.
"Brandon threw the ball well today," stated Policastro. "He walked the leadoff guy to start the game which was the only run he gave up, worked out of a couple of jams and did a good job after that. Haydn came in and didn't give up a hit in relief as well."
Weather permitting, the Cougars will host Gordon College on Tuesday and the University of the Cumberlands on Thursday.