BRIDGEWATER, Va. - Bridgewater College hammered
the Virginia Wesleyan pitching staff for 21 hits, including five
homers, in Sunday's 23-11 ODAC victory over the visiting Marlins.
The teams waited out some persistent rain showers and were able
to get one game of the scheduled doubleheader finished. The second
game will be played Friday, Mar. 19, beginning at 3:00 p.m. at the
Bridgewater baseball field.
The Eagles got off to a quick start in the bottom of the first.
Kevin Kirk and Mitchell Edwards singeld and Andy Chrismer followed
with a long homer to left, his third of the season, giving BC a 3-0
lead.
After the Marlins got on the board with a run in the second, the
Eagles padded their lead in the bottom of the third when Brett
Howell launched a two-run homer to right for a 5-1 lead.
The Marlins cut the defict to one, 5-4, in the top of the fourth
on an RBI-single by Gage Collins and a two-run double by Ryan
Estrella.
The Eagles then broke the game open with eight runs in the
bottom of the fourth to take a 13-4 lead. Blake Stokely and
Jonathan Mason led off with singles and Devon Snow was hit by a
pitch to load the sacks with no outs. Drew Easter then lined a
double to the gap in leftcenter to clear the bases and give the
Eagles an 8-4 lead.
Chrismer drove Easter home with sacrifice fly to make it 9-4 and
a single by Howell plated another run for a 10-4 lead. Howell
scored on a double by Andrew Hacker and Stokely chased Hacker home
with a single to make the score 12-4. Jonathan Mason then tripled
off the fence in center to score Stokely to put the Eagles on top
13-4.
The Marlins tried to fight back and scored four runs in the
fifth, one on a solo homer by Mike Marion to cut the margin to
13-8.
The Eagles answered with two runs in the bottom of the
fifth and then added four in the seventh to take a 19-8 lead.
Stokely provided the firepower in the seventh with a grand slam
homer.
Marion belted his second homer of the game, a three-run shot, in
the eighth to make the score 19-11 before the Eagles scored their
final four runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Snow led off the eighth with a single and Easter followed with a
homer to left making the score 21-11. Kirk made it back-to-back
jacks with a long homer to right for a 22-11 BC lead. The Eagles
finial run scored on a Marlins' throwing error.
Stokely led the Eagles offense with a 4-for-6 day and five RBIs.
Easter was 2-for-6 with five RBIs and Kirk was 4-for-5 with five
runs scored. Chrismer finished 3-for-5 with four runs batted in and
Howell drove in three runs during a 2-for-4 day at the plate.
Marion led the Marlins attack with his two homers and four RBIs
in five plate appearances.
Drew Elkins pitched five innings to pick up the victory on the
mound for BC. Elkins allowed eight runs, four of them earned, on
eight base hits. He struck out seven and walked just one to improve
to 3-1 on the season.
The Eagles will be back in aciton Wednesday afternoon when they
travel to Eastern Mennonite for an ODAC contest.
