Baseball Falls In Home Opener
- Sam Dicus
- 8 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Belmont baseball returned to E.S. Rose Park, but the Bruins’ home opener was spoiled by an 11-4 loss to Bellarmine.
Junior right-handed pitcher Zane Brown took the loss in his first start of the season for Belmont, which lasted just two innings.
Despite beginning the game with a three-up, three-down first inning, the Knights batted around in the second inning and put six runs on the board.
Brown gave up a lead-off single followed by a two-run home run from senior Luke Scales and then surrendered another two-run home run to freshman Cole Huett later in the inning.
After allowing two baserunners with two outs, Brown paid the price when graduate A.J. Swader swatted a two-run double to deep center field.
“That six-spot puts us in a hole that we’ve got to dig out,” said head coach Dave Jarvis. “It completely changes the complexion of how we manage our bullpen and a lot of other things throughout.”
Sophomore left-handed pitcher Lake Morris took over for Brown at the start of the third inning, but a few fundamental lapses led to another Bellarmine run.
The Bruins allowed a passed ball, a delayed steal of third base on the throw back to the pitcher and two infield singles to first base when no one was covering the bag.
“That’s on me because it’s my job to prepare our team, and that’s a major frustration for me because I feel like we have gone over these things,” said Jarvis.
An RBI single from Swader scored another run for Bellarmine in the fourth, but Belmont turned a 4-6-3 double play to strand two runners and end the inning.
Meanwhile, the Bruins’ bats were being stifled by graduate student Deaton Oak, who had recently transferred from Austin Peay University.
Making his first start as a Knight, Oak retired 12 consecutive Bruins to begin the game as Belmont quickly fell behind 8-0.
In the fifth, Morris punched out the leadoff hitter and gave way to freshman right-handed pitcher McKale Stevenson.
Stevenson surrendered a two-out hit to Huett, but redshirt senior catcher Mike Sprockett nabbed Huett as he tried to steal second base to end the frame.
In the home half of the fifth, redshirt sophomore Brody Langlotz became the first Bruin to reach base after a fielding error from redshirt sophomore shortstop Landon Akers.
Redshirt sophomore Nicholas Stinson then got Belmont’s first hit of the game, and he would later come around to score on sophomore Jake Maddox’s two-run triple.
Redshirt sophomore Colin McMeans drove Maddox in with an RBI single to left field, and Oak’s day was done.
Redshirt junior Left-handed pitcher Aaron Ragat relieved Oak and shut the door on the Bruins, keeping the score at 8-3.
Stevenson and sophomore left-handed pitcher Krish Gandhi combined to retire the side without surrendering a run, and Ragat matched them with a 1-2-3 bottom of the sixth.
Gandhi and graduate student Brooks McDonnough combined for three outs in the top of the seventh to send the game to the seventh inning stretch.
After a rendition of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” and a pitching change for the Knights, the Bruins scored another run when Maddox scorched another triple and then came around to score on a wild pitch.
Down 8-4, junior right-handed pitcher Aubrey Moraitakis entered the ballgame for the Bruins to begin the eighth inning.
Moraitakis quickly retired the first two batters, but allowed two-out baserunners on a hit-by-pitch, an infield single and a walk to load the bases.
Redshirt senior Eli Watson singled in two of those runners, and then a double steal by Watson and Swader resulted in the Knights’ third run of the eighth inning and 11th overall.
Trailing 11-4, Belmont could not muster any late offense and lost by that score.
The Bruins used seven different hurlers, but they could not slow down a Bellarmine offense that recorded 16 hits and hit above .500 both with runners on base and with two outs.
Meanwhile, the Bruins recorded eight hits. The team also had five innings with no baserunners, and only two innings with multiple hits— both innings yielded at least one run.
“I see some bright spots and potential, but we’ve got to become more consistent on the mound. We’ve got to become more consistent at the plate as well,” said Jarvis.
Belmont hosts Central Michigan in a four-game homestand starting with a doubleheader on Friday and games on Saturday and Sunday as well.
“Our team needs to play. I think that’s how we’re going to get better, and I think that’s how we’re gonna gel,” said Jarvis. “That’s going to be as good a medicine as we can get.”
This article was written by Sam Dicus