BARBOURVILLE, Ky. – The No. 6 Davenport baseball team could not recover from a big first inning from Union (Ky.) on Saturday as the Bulldogs scored six times and then held on for a 7-6 win over the Panthers to even the weekend series at 1-1.
Tyler Bradner's first start for Davenport proved to be something he'd like to forget as he did not record an out and faced six batters. DU took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first on a fielding error by Bryan Mejia off the bat of
Travis Bolin allowing
Matt Priebe and
Brian Sobieski to score with two outs. Bradner could not hold that lead on the mound in the bottom of the first. Bradner allowed five runs but just two earned runs with a pair of walks. Mejia and Cameron Brookwell had a RBI single and Bruce Valentin added a sacrifice fly against
Corbin Clouse in relief of Bradner.
Clouse and
Corey Sessions did a great job keeping the team in the game out of the bullpen. Clouse and Sessions tossed four innings and allowed four hits and two runs (one earned). Sessions allowed no runs over the final four innings with a walk and three strikeouts.
Brady Smiley picked up the win for Union in relief of starter Matt Hamons. Smiley threw four innings after Hamons lasted three. Smiley gave up four hits and one earned run. John Hisel and Ryan Ziels also came out of the Bulldog bullpen. Ziels tossed a clean ninth to record the save.
Davenport scored twice in the second to cut the lead to 6-4.
Connor Seymour had a two-RBI single scoring
Brandon Larkin-Guilfoyle and
Jeremy Vasquez. Union regained a run in the fourth as Valentin doubled to lead off the inning and Ziels had a sacrifice fly.
The Panthers trimmed the lead to 7-5 in the seventh as
Brandon Cable walked with one out and Bolin singled as Cable was tagged out at third. Larkin-Guilfoyle singled up the middle for a RBI with two outs scoring Bolin from second. DU got another run in the eighth off Hisel. Vasquez walked and Seymour followed by reaching on a throwing error by Brookwell.
Zac Wilson lifted a sacrifice fly to center scoring Vasquez, but Seymour tried to take third and was thrown out. In the ninth, DU got a two-out double by Larkin-Guilfoyle but was stranded in scoring position to end the game.
