Junior Chris Murril’s hit between center and right field scoring junior Steven Gauthe won the game for the Colonels with a score of 3-2 on Tuesday against the Jaguars of Southern University Baton Rouge.The Colonels started off scoring in the first inning when junior Adam Miley hit a drive in between first and second scoring Kulbeth.
The Jaguars answered when freshman pitcher Ryan Cooper balked on a pitch in the fifth. In the same inning, a throw from junior Brady Bourque to junior catcher Jason Dennis prevented the Jaguars from taking the lead. Also, center fielder Murrill threw from center to third to end the inning.
The next inning the Jaguars scored to take the lead making the score 2-1 in the Jaguars favor.
The Colonels scored in the eighth when junior Scott Moseley hit a line between first and second for a double scoring Murrill and advancing Kulbeth to third tying the score 2-2.
Murrills shot to center put the Colonels over the top in a 3-2 victory.
The Colonels kicked off conference play March 6-8 against the Lamar Cardinals in a three game series in Beaumont, Texas picking up one win in the series.
The Cardinals started scoring in the first inning posting two runs on the scoreboard against the Colonels starting senior pitcher Lance Dupuis.
The Colonels obtained their first hit in the third inning when junior Josh Labiche doubled down the right field line. Junior Chris Murrill was able to bring Labiche home when he hit a single down the middle.
However, the Cardinals answered when the next batter Dupuis faced hit a homerun to right field making the score 3-1 in the Cardinals favor. Dupuis found himself with bases loaded after walking a batter and hitting another with a pitch. Dupuis only allowed one to score.
The Colonels found themselves with bases loaded in the fourth inning. Labiche singled to right bringing home Miley and Moseley and closed in on the Cardinals with a score of 4-3 in the Cardinals favor.
In the bottom of the fourth, Senior Ross Larson came into the game to pitch for Dupuis.
“We didn’t get the start out of Dupuis that we normally get,” head coach Chip Durham said. “That happens sometimes. But our bullpen did a great job. Ross Larson came in and pitched really well and Lance Guidroz came in and backed him up.”
In the fifth inning, the Colonels took the lead after a triple from Murrill, a single from Kulbeth, which scored Murrill, and Miley grounded into a double play which scored Kulbeth making the score 6-4 in the Colonels favor.
The Colonels took advantage of Cardinal errors in the seventh inning to increase the Colonel lead 8-4 with Moseley and senior Josh Swenson scoring.
In the middle of the seventh, senior Lance Guidroz came into the game to pitch for Larson. Guidroz immediately struck out the next two batters he faced ending the inning.
The Colonels increased the lead again for the last time in the ninth when Labiche singled to third scoring Moseley.
The Colonels held the Cardinals in the bottom of the ninth to defeat the 10-1 Lamar Cardinals with a score of 9-5.
“I’m just really proud of our guys,” Durham said. “To come out on Friday night and win a ball game is big, especially on the road against a really good team like Lamar. I’m really proud of our guys and we enjoyed the win tonight, but now we’ve got to go back and get ready to come out and win again tomorrow.”
The Colonels came out in day two of the three game series and fell short of adding another win to their record losing to the Cardinals 7-3.
“We came out and battled. I thought Dunnam did a good job, but our problem was free passes,” Durham said. “We gave out eight on the day, which is way too many, especially against a good club like Lamar. Add in the nine hits they had and that’s too many runners on base and they were able to take advantage of that.”
The Cardinals started off the scoring early in the second inning when starting junior pitcher Jarrett Dunnam hit a Cardinal batter who stole second and was brought home by a teammate after a single to center field. The Cardinals scored again in the third inning. After advancing to second and stealing third, Cardinal batter hit a single to right field scoring another run for the Cardinals.
The Colonels put their first score on the board in the fifth inning. With bases loaded, Kulbeth was hit by a pitch scoring junior Kevin Schlegel. Soon after, the Colonels took the lead with Gauthe and Murrill scoring off of a fielding error from center field.
The Cardinals immediately tied the game 3-3 when a Cardinal batter hit a double after Dunnam walked a batter. The Cardinals then took the lead with a single to second base scoring a runner on third.
After senior Ryan Harding came in to pitch for Dunnam, Cardinal batter hit a double to left center scoring another run for the Cardinals making the score 5-3.
In the eighth inning, the Cardinals scored against sophomore pitcher Drew Erwin increasing the lead to 6-3 with a single through the right side. Freshman Brad Delatte entered the game to pitch and allowed a score from a sacrifice bunt increasing the Cardinal lead to 7-3.
The Colonels were not able to answer the four point lead held in the ninth and went into Sundays game to decide the winner of the three game series.
“They had timely hitting and we didn’t,” Durham said. “We both had nine hits, but theirs all came with runners in scoring position and ours weren’t. We’ve just got to lick our wounds tonight and get ready to come back and take the series.”
In the third day of the three game series, Lamar continued the trend of scoring early. The first batter junior Tyler Minto hit a homerun to left field off of a 1-2 pitch. Later a Cardinal batter scored off of an error from Gauthe making the score 2-0 at the end of the first inning.
The Cardinals scored again in the bottom of the fourth after a single to right field and bringing home the runner on third. Immediately after, Minto loaded the bases with only one out when senior teammate Jake Parrish came in to relieve Minto. Even though the Colonels were able to get an out on the play after, a Cardinal was able to score followed by another, the next batter up, causing the score to increase to 5-0.
The Cardinals found themselves adding more runs to the scoreboard in the seventh inning when two players scored, one from a wild pitch and another from a throwing error from the third baseman.
In the eighth, the Colonels put a run on the board when Miley singled to left field and scored Murrill changing the score to 8-1.
The Colonels held the Cardinals but were unable to catch up in the ninth causing the Colonels record to become 5-7 overall with a 1-2 conference record.
