VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University baseball team returned to Jerry Blemker Field since March 21 Tuesday evening for a midweek showdown with Oakland City JV.
The Trailblazers battled early but were unable to hold onto their early lead as Oakland City pulled away late to take the game by the final score of 10-4.
Vincennes opened the game on a fast start, breaking the scoreless tie with three runs in the second inning.
VU opened the scoring after back-to-back walks by sophomore Corbin Napier (Indianapolis, Ind.) and freshman Brady Cloyd (Connersville, Ind.).
Napier would score the first run of the game after a successful double steal with Cloyd to give the Blazers the 1-0 lead.
The inning continued with sophomore Noble Johnson (Terre Haute, Ind.) being hit by pitch before freshman Brayden Husband (Linton, Ind.) drove in a run with an RBI single.
VU would get their third run of the inning on a sacrifice fly by sophomore Bryce Gross (Bridgeport, Ill.) to give the Trailblazers the early 3-0 advantage.
Oakland City responded in their next inning at the plate, scoring three runs of their own to even the game at 3-3.
VU would break the tie in the bottom of the third after a leadoff walk by freshman Jevan Andrews (Hobart, Ind.) and a single by sophomore Nate Montgomery (Lexington, Ind.).
Andrews would come around to score later in the inning on an RBI groundout by Corin Napier to give the Blazers the lead back at 4-3.
Oakland City once again responded in their next inning, gaining their first lead of the night with a pair of runs in the fourth to take a 5-4 lead.
This lead would hold throughout the rest of the game, with Oakland City breaking away late with a big five run eighth inning to pull away and take the game over the Trailblazers 10-4.
“Really disappointing,” VU Head Baseball Coach Chris Barney said. “Pitchers gave us a chance. We’ve got to play better defense and obviously we’ve got to hit and we were not able to do that all night. We scored three runs on one hit to open the game and then we don’t build on that.”
“Give Oakland City credit, they did a nice job,” Barney added. “They played good defense. They came up with some timely hitting and took advantage of our mistakes. But I’m really disappointed in our overall mistakes. We’ve got to do better and the bad thing is we’ve got a really good club in Heartland coming in on Thursday and Friday to play us. We’ve got to play better, bottom line.”
Freshman Ty Stultz (Terre Haute, Ind.) got the start on the mound Tuesday evening for the Trailblazers, throwing two shutout innings without allowing a hit and striking out two.
Sophomore Colton Okes (Evansville, Ind.) came on to pitch later in the game, throwing one and two-thirds innings, allowing two unearned runs on two hits and striking out three.
Freshmen Kyle Holder (Mount Vernon, Ind.), Kory Kingsbury (Evansville, Ind.) and Jakob Hoyer (Georgetown, Ind.) each came in to pitch a shutout inning of relief, with Holder striking out one and Hoyer recording a pair of strikeouts.
Freshman Grayson Reichert (Shepherdsville, Ky.) came on to pitch the final one and two-thirds innings, allowing one unearned run on one hit.
“I thought that Kyle Holder, for not pitching in two weeks, did a nice job on the mound,” Barney said. “I thought Ty Stultz kept us in the game with two shutout innings at the start. From that avenue those are a couple guys that did a nice job tonight.”
The Trailblazers will look to regroup and bounce back as VU gets set for another tough Mid-West Athletic Conference (MWAC) series when Vincennes hosts No. 6-ranked Heartland Community College at Jerry Blemker Field Thursday, April 17 and Friday, April 18.
First pitch for Thursday’s doubleheader is set for 3 p.m. eastern, with first pitch Friday for the series finale doubleheader is set for 12 p.m. eastern.
“We’ve got to compete,” Barney added. “We’ve got to get ready to play and come ready to play. We have to feel like we deserve to be there and we’ve got to play like we deserve to be there and not give up crooked numbers. We gave up a three spot and a five spot tonight. Out of the 10 runs they scored, they scored eight runs in two innings and that just can’t happen against good clubs. That’s what we have to do better, we’ve just got to get ready to compete and play well.”
