Feb. 25, 2009
Box Score
LAKELAND, Mich. - Looking to go 5-0 in their first three days in Florida, the DU Baseball team found themselves trailing by 10 runs in the 5th inning, but a late rally lifted the Panthers past the host school 13-11 for an amazing comeback victory.
Davenport immediately left the field at Chain of Lakes Park to head for Lakeland after defeating Augustana in the morning and the road trip over to Southeastern showed early on as the host team raced out to a huge 10-0 lead heading into the 5th inning.
Davenport finally got on the board in the fifth as Tommy Enslen came around and scored on an RBI single by David Stuppy after Enslen reached on a double. Southeastern would take their 10 run lead once again in the bottom half of the inning to lead 11-1 heading into the final three innings of a full 9-inning game.
DU got one more back in the 7th and saw Kyle Jezak enter the game to shut down the Southeastern offense to give the Panthers one last crack at coming back in their last few at bats.
The Panthers got a little bit closer in the 7th as the inning got started with a single by David Stuppy that was followed by the same from Matt Collins. Joe Freist brought home Stuppy on a single and then Bryan Spykerman got both runs home on a double that hit the top of the fence in centerfield. Bryan would later score on a wild pitch to make cut the lead to just six (11-5) heading into the 8th.
After a Tyler Thurlow single, an error by SEU and a walk by DJ VanDyke to start the eighth, David Stuppy got the run home from third on a fielder's choice and Mitch Pike immediately followed with his own walk to bring home the second run of the inning.
Matt Collins proceeded to hit what looked like a routine fly ball to left field but the outfielder dropped the ball to allow Stuppy to come home and decrease the lead to 11-8. Joe Freist then came up as the DH and hit a three-run bomb to tie the game as Davenport had regained all of the momentum and looked poised to stay undefeated in their first ever season.
Jarrett Luyk then entered the game for Davenport and struck out two batters while there were runners on 2B and 3B with just one out. The comeback became complete in the top of the ninth when Tim McNair hit a sac-fly to bring home the game winner as James Folske came across the plate.
The win lifts DU to 5-0 on the year as they will take on a very tough Augustana College team on Thursday in a double-header.
