VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University baseball team closed out the home portion of their regular season at Jerry Blemker Field Saturday afternoon, dropping the first two games of their Mid-West Athletic Conference series to Parkland College 6-0 and 4-0.
Parkland broke open the scoring on the day in game one with a run in the second inning.
Vincennes managed to get a lead-off single by sophomore Carter Whitehead (Huntingburg, Ind.) in the first and a one-out single by sophomore Trevor Newman (Fort Wayne, Ind.) in the second but were unable to move those runners into scoring position.
VU looked to be in a good spot in the fourth after a lead-off double by sophomore Blake Heyerly (Monroe, Ind.) but were unable to advance the runner past second base.
Parkland added on to their lead in the fifth to take a 2-0 lead over the Blazers, before VU again looked to be able to break onto the scoreboard with a leadoff single by sophomore Brandon Juarez (Evansville, Ind.) and a walk by sophomore Kade Hinton in the fifth but again came up empty.
Parkland would add some late insurance runs by plating four runs in the seventh before Vincennes had another good opportunity to cut into the deficit in the eighth.
VU loaded the bases with only one out after Blake Heyerly was hit by pitch, freshman Nate Montgomery (Lexington, Ind.) got a single and Trevor Newman walked to load the bases.
The Trailblazers continued to have a tough time breaking onto the scoreboard, getting a runner in scoring position in five straight innings but ultimately coming up with a zero in the run column.
Parkland would close out the game to pick up the game one victory over the Trailblazers 6-0.
Freshman Carson Allen (Louisville, Ky.) got the start in game one and had to exit early after just three and two-thirds innings due to injury. Allen had only surrendered one run on one hit and struck out one before exiting in the fourth inning.
Allen handed the game over to sophomore Josh McCormick (Indianapolis, Ind.) out of the bullpen and McCormick made an immediate impact, getting out of the fourth inning with just a single pitch.
McCormick would go on to throw three and one third innings, allowing five runs on seven hits and striking out four.
Freshman Colton Okes (Evansville, Ind.) came in to pitch the final two innings for the Trailblazers, allowing just a single hit in two shutout innings of work.
“Our hitting still has to step up and we just didn’t get it done,” VU Head Baseball Coach Chris Barney said. “Their pitching was really good and we couldn’t sustain anything against them offensively.”
