Trailblazers begin conference play with road win at Spoon River

CANTON, Ill. – The Vincennes University Trailblazer baseball team began their Mid-West Athletic Conference play Sunday afternoon with a doubleheader at Spoon River College in Canton, Ill.

The Trailblazers fell behind early and battled back to take game one 8-6 over the host Snappers.

Game two of the doubleheader was suspended after the 5th inning due to darkness, with Vincennes holding a 14-9 lead. The game will be resumed tomorrow, March 21, before the scheduled doubleheader at 2 p.m. eastern.

Spoon River was the first to get on the board in the bottom of the first with a two-run home run.

Vincennes tied the game the next inning with a run driven in by freshman Nick Williams (Alexandria, Ind.) and a sacrifice fly by freshman Ethan Burdette (Linton, Ind.).

Spoon River broke the tie with a run in the bottom of the second and the Trailblazers responded back with four runs in the third.

Freshman Kaden Elliott (New Albany, Ind.) drove in a run on a fielder’s choice and Nick Williams came through with an RBI single. Ethan Burdette finished off the inning with a two-RBI double.

The Snappers tried to attempt a comeback with a run in the third and fourth to cut the VU lead to 6-5.

VU freshman Colton Evans (Henderson, Ky.) drove in another VU run in the sixth with an RBI double as sophomore Peyton Lane (New Paris, Ohio) came around to score.

Vincennes would score another run in the seventh as Ethan Burdette hit his second RBI double of the day and his fourth RBI of the game.

“What Ethan did today at the plate was phenomenal,” VU Assistant Baseball Coach Brian Campbell said. “He’s been in a little bit of a jam. He’s hitting the ball well, he’s just been hitting it at people and as a hitter that can get very discouraging because you know you are doing everything right, you are just hitting right at guys. But he continued to swing the bat and continued to have confidence in himself and he had four RBI’s today. He’s a big part of getting our whole lineup going. When he’s hitting well and getting on base, it helps us out a lot.”

The VU bullpen closed out the game to give the Trailblazers the 8-6 win and their first conference win of the season.

Sophomore Connor VanLannen (Clinton, Ind.) got the start on the mound for the Trailblazers Sunday afternoon, throwing 5.2 innings, giving up six runs on four hits and striking out eight Spoon River batters.

Sophomore Braedon Nichols (Sullivan, Ind.) entered from the bullpen to throw 2.1 innings, allowing only one hit and striking out four.

Sophomore Luke Osborn (Perryville, Ind.) took the mound in the ninth and picked up the save, striking out one batter in the inning.

“We knew that this series wasn’t going to be easy,” Campbell said. “Spoon River has been playing pretty well lately. Our guys knew that this is a Conference series and everybody needs to be up and ready and our guys have matured a lot since the start of the season. They have found ways to compete and that’s exactly what happened today.”

“We went down early, but we knew that we’ve been swinging the bats well and we put pressure on them,” Campbell added. “We had situations where we could bunt and put the ball in play and that’s really what got us going today. Once we got the momentum we didn’t let it go.”

“VanLannen pitched well but didn’t have the greatest of days. Once we got through the lineup three times we made the move to Nichols and did a great job and did his part. Then Osborn came in and closed the door. Our guys just fought really well and flat out competed and that’s how we ended up on top.”

Game two of the doubleheader was suspended after the fifth inning due to darkness, with the Trailblazers holding a 14-9 lead.

VU fell behind early in game two of the day after giving up eight runs in the second inning.

The Trailblazers battled back with a two- RBI single by sophomore Dale Coy (Evansville, Ind.) and a three-run home run by Colton Evans.

Colin Long picked up a pair of singles in the fourth inning as the Trailblazers used a seven-run inning to take a 13-8 lead.

Vincennes added a run on a sacrifice fly by Kaden Elliott to give the Trailblazers a 14-9 advantage.

The game will resume tomorrow, Monday, March 21, before the scheduled final two games of the four-game set at 11 a.m. eastern, with Vincennes batting in the top of the sixth and Colin Long, Peyton Lane and Colton Evans due up.

“Our guys know that tomorrow is going to be a long day,” Campbell said. “We are going to be at the field at nine in the morning taking batting practice and getting ready to go. We’ve just got to take care of business. We are in a really good spot, going into the sixth with a five run lead, our guys have been seeing the ball well and we’ve gotten into their bullpen and have been making them use some guys out of the pen.”

“At the end of the day we just have to make the routine plays,” Campbell added. “This team is going to hit and put the ball in play and as long as we can make the routine plays and not give them any extra outs, I can see us being pretty successful at finishing off game two.”

“We are going to take care of our guys after that, make sure that they are well rested and they are just going to have to dog it out. This is what JuCo baseball is sometimes. You have to be able to handle the X-factor and our guys are just going to have to be ready to play and ready to compete. Spoon River isn’t just going to hand us any games. Every Conference game is meaningful, so we have to just continue to carry on the energy that we had today and continue to compete.”