VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University baseball team closed out their four-game weekend set against NJCAA Division II No. 6-ranked Kellogg Community College and NJCAA Division I No.7-ranked Wabash Valley Saturday at Jerry Blemker Field.
The Trailblazers took a tough, extra-inning loss to begin the day against Kellogg CC, falling 9-6 in eight innings.
Vincennes closed out the weekend by dropping their second game of the day to Wabash Valley by the score of 13-3.
The Trailblazers grabbed the upper hand on the Bruins early in the first game of the day as sophomore Colin Long (Evansville, Ind.) got the first hit of the day with a single and scored on an RBI double by sophomore Peyton Lane (New Paris, Ohio).
Lane would later score on a wild pitch to give the Trailblazers an early 2-0 lead over the highly ranked Kellogg squad.
KCC would get a run back in the third before VU answered with back-to-back doubles by Peyton Lane and freshman Colton Evans (Henderson, Ky.) to take a 3-1 lead.
The Bruins would even the score in the fourth and Vincennes would answer to get a run in the bottom half after a leadoff single by Nick Williams (Alexandria, Ind.) who would later score on an RBI single by sophomore Josiah Sizemore (Cambridge City, Ind.).
VU extended their lead in the fifth as freshman Ethan Burdette (Linton, Ind.) reached on an infield single and score to give the Blazers a 5-3 lead.
The Bruins rallied back in the sixth however, scoring three runs in the inning to take the lead back at 6-5.
Vincennes would respond in the bottom of the sixth when freshman Kobe Bartlett (Rockport, Ind.) scored on a fielding error, tying the game and sending it to extras.
Kellogg struck first in the extra frame in a big way, with a two-out bases clearing three-RBI double to take a 9-6 lead over the host Blazers.
Vincennes would manage to get runners on first and second with one out in the bottom half but were unable to bring them around to score as the Bruins came away with the 9-6 win in eight innings.
VU got another good outing on the mound from sophomore Connor VanLannen (Clinton, Ind.) who threw 5.1 innings, giving up five runs on five hits and punching out five.
Sophomore Luke Osborn (Perryville, Ind.) pitched 2.1 innings in relief, giving up three runs on three hits and striking out three on the day.
The Trailblazers looked to bounce back from this early loss against the No. 7-ranked Wabash Valley Warriors in the final game of the weekend.
The two offenses set the tone early, with runs being scored in each of the first two and a half innings of play.
Wabash Valley plated three in the first before VU responded with two in the bottom half on an RBI single by Evans and an RBI double by VanLannen.
The Warriors scored one in the second, which was answered with an RBI single by Colin Long.
Wabash Valley then scored three runs in the third and three more in the fourth to take a 10-3 lead over the Trailblazers.
The VU offense was unable to answer back in the later innings, with only one runner reaching third base safely as Wabash Valley added on to take the 13-3 win at Jerry Blemker Field.
Freshman Jake Stuteville (Rockport, Ind.) got the start on the mound for VU in the second game of the day, lasting three innings giving up seven runs on six hits and coming away with five strikeouts.
The Trailblazers got a big inning out of the bullpen from freshman Eli Steimel (Sullivan, Ind.) who struck out all three batters he faced in the game on just 15 pitches.
