Fifth-ranked North Greeneville University took advantage of 16 free passes (9 walks, 7 hit batters) in defeating the Lee University baseball team 17-9 at Larry Carpenter Stadium on Tuesday afternoon in a non-conference game. The Trailblazers improved to 37-8 overall while the Flames dropped to 23-19. The Flames will move back into Gulf South Conference action on Friday and Saturday when they travel to Livingston, Ala. and face University of West Alabama. Friday’s single game is slated for 6 p.m.
and Saturday’s doubleheader will get underway at 2 p.m.
North Greeneville jumped out to a 7-1 lead at the end of six innings of play. The Flames rallied for four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and sliced the margin to 7-5. The Trailblazers tallied five runs in the top of the eighth inning and salted the win away with five more scores in the top of the ninth to take a commanding 17-5 advantage. Lee took one last shot at a comeback by plating four runs in the bottom of the ninth but it wasn’t near enough.
The Flames had 13 hits in the loss. JJ Williams, Luke Collier, Isaiah French and Malachi Cloud had two hits apiece. French, Cloud, Gavin Baxter and Cooper Doughman each doubled while Collier tripled. Tucker Platt, Ryan Valdes and Brock Sisson had Lee’s other hits.
French was Lee’s RBI leader with three while Baxter and Doughman drove in two runs each. Platt and Valdes posted the Flames other RBI. Williams and Collier tallied a pair of runs while French, Platt, Cloud, Baxter and Braden Gabel had the other scores.
Lee used eight pitchers in the loss. Dylan Van Meeteren started and worked the first three innings. He allowed two hits, two earned runs, walked a pair and fanned one. Nelson Smith (1.2), Zachary Lawson (0.1), Matthew Delph (2.0), Evan Bloomer (0.2), David White (0.1), Braylon Hall (0.0) and Eric Boggess (1.0) followed Van Meeteren (2-5) the losing pitcher to the mound.
North Greeneville got homeruns from Bryce Roddy, Josh Foulks, Tim Salinas and Alton Gyselman. Landon Shaw was the leading hitter with three including a triple and two singles. He joined Foulks in knocking four runs. Gyselman finished with three RBI, Salinas two, Roddy one and pinch hitter Matthew Albritton one. Thomas Powell tallied three runs for the winners while Roddy, Brett Blomquist, Salinas, Gyselman and Josh Williams put two runs each on the board.
North Greeneville used five pitchers in the victory. Jake Monroe hurled the first four innings of three-hit ball. He walked two and fanned seven. Brent Stukes came on for a pair and allowed just one hit but walked two and struck out three. The Flames got to Thomas Skipper in his two frames. He allowed five hits and four earned runs. The same could be said for Tyler Dean. He surrendered four hits and four runs while retiring just two hitters. Ian Squires recorded the final out of the game. All totaled the five Trailblazer pitchers struck out 12 Lee hitters and walked five. Stukes (2-1) got credit for the pitching win.
Coach Mark Brew’s thoughts:
“North Greenville is way too good of a team to hand as many freebies as we did today. Even with that, it is hard to believe it was a 7-5 game headed into the 8th. We didn’t hit situationally early at all and had too many punch outs but showed some fight with our four-run innings in the 7th and 9th. We’ve got a huge weekend at West Alabama and it will be another big challenge for our team as we head into our final two weekends.”