The weather mirrored the University of Evansville baseball team’s fortunes on the diamond this soggy Saturday afternoon in Spartanburg, South Carolina, as the Purple Aces (1-1)suffered their first loss of the season, falling to Dayton (1-1), 6-3.
The UE bats were silenced for much of the game, as Flyers starting pitcher Jordan Cox and the Dayton bullpen combined to strike out a dozen Aces on the day. Fordham racked up 19 Evansville punchouts in Friday’s opener.
“Our offense was anemic, especially with two strikes, non-Competitive,” said University of Evansville Baseball Head Coach Wes Carroll. “Having a 12 strikeout game, following a 19 strikeout yesterday. We didn’t put the ball in play enough on a real wet field to make a real difference today.”
Still, there were a some bright spots at the plate. Sophomore shortstop Craig Shepherd delivered a clutch 2-run double in the third inning, driving in both freshman third baseman Sam Troyer and junior outfielder Dalton Horstmeier, which gave the Aces the lead, 2-1.
“Certain times in the game, we thought we were building moment, then we’d have a bad at-bat,” said Carroll. “Either a 3-1 pop-up or a double play. You mix in a bad at-bat, and it can kill your day.”
Meanwhile on the hill, junior left-hander Alex Weigand overcame Dayton’s Pat Meehan solo home run to lead off the game, tossing a pair of scoreless frames. However, in the 4th inning, things got tough for the southpaw. It began with a passed ball, allowing Tirotta to come in from third base with the tying score. Later in the inning, Bailey Montoya lifted an RBI lace to the left side, bringing in Takahiro Yamada with the go-ahead tally. That would end Weigand’s day, as he finished with four runs, all earned, on six hits, while striking out a pair. Ward would give up a run before finally putting down the fourth inning uprising, leaving Evansville down 4-2.
The Flyers would put two more on the board in the sixth inning. Down 6-1 in the eighth, the Aces got a shot in the arm offensively, as senior slugger Travis Tokarek belted an RBI single to center, scoring sophomore center fielder Kenton Crews. However, the rally ended there, as Evansville dropped to 1-1 on the young season.
“We got beat in all three aspects of the game,” said Carroll. “You look on the mound. A wild pitch and a run in, walking a run in, and then having an error on the mound.”
The Aces face a tall task in Sunday’s weekend finale in Spartanburg, as they look to bounce back against the eighth ranked team in the nation, Kentucky, on the campus of University of South Carolina-Upstate. First pitch is at 10 a.m. central time.
