Pirates fall to Bulldogs in extra innings

Pirates fall to Bulldogs in extra innings

Bulldogs were hot out the gate and closed with a huge 12th inning to hand SU a 12-7 extra inning loss at home on Friday.

Texas Lutheran had perfect offensive execution to push one run across in the first and second inning to take an early 2-0 lead. TLU added three in the third to go up 5-0, but starting pitcher Jeremy Rice settled in and found his groove.

Southwestern picked up one on a well-executed hit and run by Robert Wehman to bring home Clayton Sparks in the fourth.

The Pirates got hot in the eighth, loading the bases with no outs and Ben Little drove home two on a single up the middle. Thomas O'Brien pulled SU within one, 5-4, after an RBI chopper for the first out of the inning.

Robert Wehman's deep fly to center brought plated another and Will Cates scored the go ahead, moving around the bases on an error and wild pitch. After all was said and done the Pirates had the lead in hand 6-5.

TLU went deep into their bench and brought out pinch hitter after pinch hitter to attempt to seize the lead back. The Bulldogs tied the game on Gennusa's fly ball to right field and held the Pirates from scoring in the bottom of the ninth to send the game into extra innings.

Both teams notched a run in the tenth but TLU exploded for five runs in the 12th, capitalizing on Pirate errors to take the win.

Southwestern committed six errors in the loss with ten hits to go with their seven runs. Will Cates, Ben Little and Robert Wehman all posted two hits while Wehman led with three RBIs. Rice went seven innings, allowing five runs, four earned on seven hits while walking one and striking out four. Will Preston garnered the loss with seven runs, no earned on five hits while walking three and striking out one.

The Pirates fall to 4-5 on the year while TLU improves to 10-5 overall. The two teams will face off again tomorrow for a double header beginning at 2 pm.