LIVINGSTON, Ala. – The Spring Hill College baseball team defeated No. 4 University of West Alabama, 13-8, on the road tonight. The Badgers this year took the two-game series 2-0 after taking the first game back on Feb. 24 with a 6-4 victory at home.
The Badgers improved to 33-14 on the season, while the Tigers fell to 32-12.
Spring Hill got on the board early in the top of the first, pushing a pair of runs across. It started when
Jatnier Torres singled to left and later moved to second when
Alex Roux walked on six pitches. Torres then scored when
Jordan Black drove a pitch back up the middle to put the Badgers up 1-0 and send Roux to second. Roux advanced to third on
Jaylen Jones' flyout to right, putting runners on the corners.
John Webb put Spring Hill up 2-0 off his sacrifice fly to center to score Roux before the inning ended.
The Tigers in their half of the first were able to cut the lead in half when they plated a run on 2 hits. UWA went on to add three runs in the second and one in the fourth to take a 5-2 lead into the top of the sixth.
With one down in the top of the sixth, Black walked and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. He later moved to third when Jones singled to right to put runners on the corners. Jones moved himself into scoring position when he stole second. Both runners scored later off Webb's two-run single up the middle to cut the lead to 5-4. Webb swiped back-to-back bags with two down before
Andrew Juez walked to put runners on the corners. Webb later scored off
Robby Lopez's RBI single to left to tie the game at five and put runners on first and second.
Reggie Cooper kept the inning going with his RBI single to right center to score Juez to put the Badgers in front 6-5 and send Lopez to third. Cooper stole second, but an error by the pitcher allowed Lopez to score to make it 7-5. Torres' RBI single plated Cooper, pushing the lead to 8-5 before the inning ended.
UWA cut the lead to one off a two-run home run in the bottom of the eighth to trail 8-7.
Spring Hill put up a five-spot in the top of the ninth on a pair of hits and an error to take a 13-7 lead.
The Tigers looked to rally in the bottom of the ninth as they plated a run with two outs to cut the lead to 13-8. Then they were able to get two runners before a lineout to the shortstop ended the rally and locked down the win for the Badgers.
Reliever Nate Helton picked up his fifth win of the season to go to 5-1. He allowed three runs on eight hits over five and a third innings of work.
Starting pitcher Alex Dickie went two and two-thirds innings while allowing four runs on five hits for Spring Hill.
Jones finished the night going 2-for-4 with a home run, three RBIs, and a pair of runs while teammate Torres was 2-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored.
Black, Webb,
Gavin Moran, Lopez, and Cooper all tallied hits for the Badgers. Moran's hit was the team's only double. Each of them scored at least one run, with Black scoring two runs.
Spring Hill will close out the regular season this weekend at home when it hosts Clark Atlanta for a three-game SIAC series. The first two games will be on Friday, with game one starting at 1 p.m.
