Baseball Picks Up First Home Win

Belmont Vision Multimedia. (Zach Watkins)

While Belmont baseball opened its home schedule last Tuesday, victory did not come against Bellarmine. Instead, the Bruins earned their first home win of the season during opening weekend, defeating Central Michigan in the second game of the series at E.S. Rose Park.

In the series opener, the Bruins struggled to capitalize offensively, recording 13 hits but failing to consistently find home plate.

With a quiet dugout and inconsistencies on the field the Bruins fell to the Chippewas 9-3.

Cedarville transfer Tate Marland took the mound for Belmont in the second game of the series, a 4:30 p.m. start following the opener.

Both teams were retired in order in the opening inning before Central Michigan broke through in the second, as outfielder Harrison Bowman doubled to center field and later came home on a hit from catcher Logan Keilen.

The score would remain 1-0 for a lengthy amount of time.

The result of the fourth inning ended up bittersweet for Marland.

While he surpassed his previous total of five strikeouts against Samford, a home run was given up to infielder Brady Krzciok, before striking out his seventh batter of the night.

That home run became the last time Central Michigan rounded the bases.

It was all Bruin for the coming innings.

In the bottom of the fifth, the bases were loaded by Noah Burnham, Jake Maddox and JD Whitworth when senior second baseman Charlie Davis stepped up to the plate.

Davis singled the ball to left field bringing in Burnham for the Bruins first run of the game.

Third baseman Landon Godsey then doubled down the third base line bringing in Maddox and Whitworth to take the lead.

Sophomore shortstop Cavan McMeans brought home Charlie Davis for the final run of the inning, making it 4-2.

Marland returned to the mound for the sixth inning, one more than his previous outing at Samford.

By the top of the seventh inning Marland threw his eighth and final strikeout of the game, freshman left-handed pitcher Ridge Harvey came in for the remaining rotation for Marland with two strikeouts to return the bats to the Bruins.

After a Davis single and a Godsey walk, sophomore right fielder Brody Longlotz batted him in to score the Bruin’s final run of the game.

Central Michigan would not get too close to home plate in the remaining innings.

By the ninth inning it was three-up-three-down for Central Michigan with a ball batted straight to Maddox’s glove to close out the game.

The win makes Marland unbeaten from his first start for the Bruins.

“It's kind of a surreal feeling, it's always been a dream of mine to kind of come here and help the team to do whatever they can to win the game,” Marland said, “I think we got a great squad here. Everyone's bought in, so just being able to play my part is a huge factor for me.”

In game three, Belmont’s comeback attempt fell short as the Central Michigan Chippewas prevailed 6-4.

“Defensive breakdowns ended up being the bottom line in that ballgame, in my opinion,” said Jarvis. “At the end of the day, our calling card is our defense. If we play better defense, we win that game.”

Despite being credited with one fewer error, the Bruins’ defense allowed a run due to a passed ball, an infield single because no one covered first base and two runs as a result of a pivotal fielding error.

Sophomore left-hander Lake Morris started the game for the Bruins, but fell behind 1-0 in the first inning after an RBI single from cleanup hitter Brady Krzciok.

Belmont was unable to cash in against Central Michigan’s freshman starter Neiswonger until the second inning.

Freshman J.D. Whitworth led off the inning with a single and then stole second base. Sprockett tied the game when he drove Whitworth in with an RBI single to center field.

Sprockett got picked off between first and second when he mistakenly thought strike two was ball four.

Later in the inning, Landon Godsey stroked a two-run RBI double, but the baserunning blunder would prove costly.

Morris was pulled out of the game in the fourth inning after Joey Milto tied the game with a wall-scraping two-run home run to right field.

Relieving Morris with one out in the fourth, freshman right-hander McKale Stevenson ended the inning with two key strikeouts.

Stevenson allowed a one-out RBI single to Krzciok in the fifth inning to give Central Michigan the lead, but induced an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play to get out of the jam.

In the bottom half of the fifth, the Bruins put Neiswonger in a bind after an infield single and a shortstop throwing error placed runners on first and third with one out.

However, McMeans was thrown out at second base on a call confirmed by replay review, and sophomore Jake Maddox struck out to end the frame.

Left-handed sophomore Andrew Perry pitched a scoreless seventh, but ran into some trouble in the eighth.

A lead-off walk, and a bunt single ended his day, and right-handed freshman Shane Duke relieved him.

Both inherited runners ended up scoring after a fielding error by Maddox, a sac fly from Spencer Verburg and a passed ball by Sprockett, but Duke managed to limit the damage with a pair of punchouts.

Down to their last out in the ninth, the Bruins cut the score to 6-4 after a McMeans RBI double.

However, Central Michigan’s Liam Stumpf rebounded to strike out Maddox and pick up the save.

In his second career start, Neiswonger picked up his second career win after throwing five innings of three-run ball. Stevenson picked up his first career loss after allowing one run in two and two-thirds innings of relief.

The Bruins and Chippewas were scheduled to play the final game of the weekend Sunday at 1 p.m., but it was canceled due to weather.

Belmont now sits at 2-5 and will head to Dugan Field to face Lipscomb in the Battle of the Boulevard Tuesday at 4 p.m.

This article was written by Sam Dicus and Reece Leddy