RICHMOND, Ky. — The Bellarmine University baseball team won its season debut under new Head Coach
Chris Dominguez. The Knights were also victorious in their ASUN Conference debut under their first-year skipper.
On Friday at Earle Combs Stadium, Bellarmine backed
Nolan Pender's solid outing with three home runs in capturing a 6-5 win over Eastern Kentucky in the first of a three-game series.
Junior first baseman
Davis Crane, junior center fielder
Reed Blaszczyk and sophomore right fielder
Casey Sorg all went deep in the ASUN opener for Bellarmine (6-12, 1-0 ASUN), which snapped a 10-game losing streak, four of which were by two runs or less. The Knights hung on to secure the victory over Eastern Kentucky (7-10, 0-1) after senior right-hander
Matt Craven worked a perfect ninth while registering his third save.
Eastern Kentucky scored four runs in the third inning, but the Colonels didn't plate anybody else around that frame during Pender's 7.0 innings. The senior right-hander improved to 3-1 after allowing seven hits with four strikeouts.
EKU went ahead 4-3 after that big inning. The Knights had taken a 3-0 lead in the top half of the third on an RBI double off the top of the wall by senior left fielder
Dylan Byerly, an RBI single by Blaszczyk and an RBI fielder's choice by senior second baseman
Peyton Back.
After EKU rallied, Bellarmine tied it up at 4-all in the fourth on a solo homer by Crane, his second of the season. Blaszczyk and Sorg then smashed back-to-back, tape-measure solo shots in the fifth as the Knights wrangled back the lead. It was the fourth homer of the year for both Blaszczyk and Sorg.
Eastern Kentucky cut its deficit to one after scoring a run in the eighth, but Craven made quick work of the Colonels in the ninth. The Knights played error-free and turned critical inning-ending double plays in the fifth and seventh.
Blaszczyk and senior shortstop
Brett Pfaadt collected two hits apiece for Bellarmine, which will meet Eastern Kentucky in the second game of the series at 2 p.m. (ET) Saturday.
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