Aces fall to Cougars on eighth-inning rally

 A late inning rally of runs stopped the University of Evansville baseball team’s winning streak on Friday as College of Charleston rallied from a three-run deficit for a 9-5 win.

“We allowed too many free bases from the 7th inning on. We played well for six innings, but couldn’t find a way to compete on the mound, defensively, or at the plate for the final three innings,” said Aces head baseball coach Wes Carroll. “I’m ready to see how our club comes out tomorrow against a quality opponent.”

Looking to continue their win streak, Evansville’s offense got the spark it needed in the top of the third inning as the bases were loaded with junior Tanner Craig coming to the plate. Craig, who entered sixth in the nation in home runs, smacked a grand slam to right field. Craig’s grand slam is the first for the Aces since Troy Beilsmith hit a grand slam on Feb. 25, 2019 in a 10-5 win over Little Rock.

Evansville added an insurance run in the sixth as freshman Brent Widder drove in Danny Borgstrom with a base-hit to right-center field.

College of Charleston took a chunk out of Evansville’s lead in the seventh, plating a pair of runs to trim the Aces’ advantage to 5-2. Senior Nathan Croner saw his day come to an end in the seventh with runners on second and third as Croner finished the day pitching 6.1 innings, allowing just one earned run and striking-out four.

Needing a pair of outs, it was senior David Ellis who came on in releif to close-out the seventh and Ellis did just that, not allowing the Cougars to draw closer in the inning with back-to-back outs.

The eighth proved to be the all important inning for College of Charleston as the Cougars plated seven runs in the inning to take a 9-5 lead, before shutting down the Aces at the plate in the ninth to grab the comeback victory.

Evansville returns to action with the second game of its three-game series with College of Charleston at 1 PM (CT) on Saturday in Mt. Pleasant, S.C.