April 8, 2007
The Southwestern Pirates baseball team earned the series win as SU took a pair of games from the Warriors of Hendrix College on Saturday (Apr. 7) in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play in Conway, AR.
Southwestern 7, Hendrix 5
The Pirates scored quickly in the top of the first inning as Michael Murphy (Houston, TX/Austin HS) grounded out to second base to score senior Richard Falcone (Houston, TX/Westside HS) from third. In the second, Brad Culling (Albuquerque, NM/St. Pius HS) led off with a double to right and then scored on an error by the pitcher to put SU ahead 2-0.
The Warriors tied things up at 2-2 in the fourth thanks to four singles in the inning. Southwestern answered in the fifth inning as Ryan Bellomy (Dallas, TX/Jesuit HS) tripled to left centerfield, followed by an infield single by Murphy and an RBI fielder's choice off the bat of Eric Gonzales (Austin, TX/Bowie HS). Hendrix scored two in the bottom half of the fifth on a double to dead-center for a 4-3 lead.
The Bucs regained the lead in the sixth with a two-out double followed by a walk and another double, Bellomy's third extra-base hit of the game. With a 5-4 lead, the Pirates allowed a single run in the sixth to tie the game. Senior Andy Morrison (Austin, TX/Connally HS), the SU starting pitcher who threw eight innings on Thursday (Apr. 5) came in and gave up an RBI single to the first batter he faced in relief before striking out the next two hitters.
Southwestern got two more runs in the seventh thanks to a pair of hits, a walk, a hit batter and a Hendrix errors for a 7-5 lead. Morrison gave up a leadoff double in the bottom of the inning but retired the next three hitters for his second win in three days.
Bellomy finished the game 3-4 with two doubles and a triple, driving in two runs and scoring one. Murphy and John Wooten (Columbus, TX/Columbus HS) both had two hits with both driving in a single run and Wooten scoring once. Culling scored two runs for the Bucs.
Junior Scott Rogers (Flower Mound, TX/Marcus HS) started for the Pirates, throwing four innings and allowing three earned runs on six hits while not factoring in to the decision. Morrison improved to 6-4 on the year, working 1.2 innings in relief, striking out three and walking none. He did not allow a run and gave up two hits.
Southwestern 14, Hendrix 7
Hendrix struck first in the second game of the double-dip, utilizing a leadoff walk followed by three-straight singles for a 2-0 lead. Southwestern came back and got five hits, two of them doubles, along with two walks to put a five-spot on the Warriors and take the 5-2 lead. Todd Boone (Huntsville, TX/Huntsville HS) hit an RBI double, Falcone drove in a run with a walk and Bellomy hit a two-run single in the inning.
The Pirates allowed two more runs in a third inning that included a sequence of plays that had an error by the second baseman, followed by a balk, followed by an error on the first baseman. With the score 5-4, the Bucs put a little distance between themselves and the Warriors with a two-run double of the bat of Jamie Herrmann (Houston, TX/Westside HS). Hendrix, however, came right back with two runs on three hits to keep it a one-run ballgame at 7-6 through four.
In the top half of the sixth, Bellomy drew a walk with one out, moved up to second on a passed ball, advanced to third on a groundout to second and then scored on a wild pitch to put SU ahead 8-6. The Pirates then put the game out of reach in the seventh as they pounded out six runs on four hits, highlighted by Culling's two-out, two-run double down the right field line. Reliever Travis Sartain (Houston, TX/Klein HS) gave up a single run in the seventh, making the score 14-7, before SU's pitching put a stop to Hendrix's scoring over the final two innings.
Bellomy was 2-3 in the game while driving in three and scoring twice, giving him five RBI and three runs scored on the day. Herrmann and Culling both had two RBI in the second game and senior Derek Berger (Houston, TX/Spring Woods HS) had a three-hit game.
Sartain was the winner for the Bucs, throwing five innings in relief. He gave up five runs, four of them earned, on six hits. His season record now stands at 2-0.
The two wins run the Pirates' season record to 15-20 and their SCAC mark to 7-5. Hendrix, meanwhile, saw its record drop to 13-20-1 overall, 2-10 in conference.
Southwestern closes out SCAC play next weekend with a four-game series against rival Trinity University beginning on Friday (Apr. 13) at 5:00 p.m. in Georgetown, TX.
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