CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Despite amassing a Division I-era program record for hits, the Bellarmine University baseball team dropped a wild 14-13 affair to Austin Peay State on Tuesday at Raymond C. Hand Park.
Future rivals in the ASUN, Bellarmine (1-8) and Austin Peay (6-2) combined for 31 hits. The Knights piled up 18 of them, their highest output since rising to D1 last season. Six different Bellarmine players tallied multiple-hit games and 10 total Knights collected at least one.
Bellarmine and Austin Peay counterpunched one another virtually the entire game. The back and forth began immediately, as both teams scored one run in the first, three in the second and three in the third.
Austin Peay crept ahead 9-8 in the fourth after outscoring Bellarmine 2-1 in the inning — the first time the two teams didn't put up the exact same number in a frame. The Governors added one run in the fifth to go up 10-8, but the Knights answered with one run in the sixth and three in the eighth to vault into the lead at 12-10.
Austin Peay responded with three runs in the bottom half to wrangle the lead back at 13-12, but the Knights knotted it up at 13-all in the ninth after junior third baseman
Peyton Back drew a bases-loaded walk on a 3-2 count.
The bottom of the ninth started off promisingly for Bellarmine as the Knights recorded two quick outs. John Bolton kept the inning alive for Austin Peay by drawing a walk, and after he stole second, Gino Avros was intentionally walked. Pinch hitter Harrison Brown came to the plate and took a hack at the first pitch he saw, lining a single to right that scored Bolton with the game-winning run.
Offensively, Bellarmine had a surplus of standouts. Senior shortstop
Clayton Mehlbauer belted his second home run of the season — a three-run shot in the third — while going 2-for-4 with three runs scored and four RBIs.
Back launched the first homer of his collegiate career — a solo shot in the fourth — in going 2-for-4 with two RBIs. Senior left fielder
Matt Higgins went 3-for-5 with a two-run single and a double, while senior right fielder
Jacob Mulcahy went 3-for-6 with an RBI single and an RBI double.
Senior center fielder
Jack Ockerman stole three bases and collected two hits and three runs scored. Sophomore catcher
Kevin Butler had a pair of hits, including a double, while
Colin Bertsch and
Casey Sorg both delivered pinch-hit RBI singles in the eighth.
As the run and hit totals strongly suggest, the vast majority of the pitchers on both sides struggled. Junior lefthander
Steven Thom was an exception for Bellarmine, allowing a single run in 3.1 effective innings of relief.
Bellarmine will play at 4 p.m. (ET) Wednesday at Murray State.
For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow us on Twitter (@BUKnights), Instagram (BUKnights) and Facebook (BUKnights).
