Box Score
LYNCHBURG, Va. – Bridgewater senior Tyler Hoffman plated the winning run with an infield grounder in the bottom of the 10th inning Thursday evening as the Eagles escaped with a 5-4 victory over Washington and Lee in the opening round of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) baseball tournament at City Stadium.
The Generals jumped out to a quick lead when Keegan Dolan led off the game with a towering homer to left-center off Eagles starter Nick Corbin.
Bridgewater tied the score in the bottom of the third. Ryan Fitzgerald led off the inning with a double down the right field line. With one out, designated hitter Ryan Leake lined a double to left center, scoring Fitzgerald to tie the score at 1-1.
The Eagles tacked on three more runs in the fourth against Generals starter Jake Rudolph. With two outs and no one on base, Zach Hynes singled and stole second base. Darren Yoder followed with a run-scoring single, giving the Eagles a 2-1 lead. Yoder stole second and Hoffman walked to give the Eagles a pair of base runners. Yoder scored when Fitzgerald singled to right field for a 3-1 Bridgewater lead. With runners at the corners, Hoffman scored when Nick Fulk's grounder was misplayed for an error, making the score 4-1.
It looked like that would be plenty of runs for Corbin as he dominated the W&L lineup after giving up the first-inning homer to Dolan.
Corbin took a four-hitter and a 4-1 lead into the ninth, but the Generals put together a game-tying rally. Luke Myer led off the inning and was safe at first on a throwing error. With one out, pinch-hitter Jon Swenson singled down the right field line, putting runners at the corners. Ryan Weston followed with a three-run homer over the left field wall, tying the game at 4-4.
The Eagles wasted a chance to win in the bottom of the frame. Yoder singled to start the inning and moved to second on Hoffman's sacrifice bunt. Fitzgerald singled to left, but Yoder stopped at third with Fitzgerald moving to second on the throw back to infield. Fulk was intentionally walked to load the bases, but reliever Cory Smith worked out of the jam. Smith struck out Leake and retired Bryan Sanderson on a fly ball to center to send the game to extra innings.
Kyle Henshaw came out of the pen and retired the Generals in the top of the inning, setting the stage for the Eagles' winning run in the bottom half of the frame.
With one out in the inning, Brendan Howell singled and moved to third on a double by Hynes. Yoder was intentionally walked, bringing Hoffman to the plate with the bases full. With the count one ball and two strikes, Hoffman hit a grounder just to the right of the mound. The ball glanced off Smith's glove to second baseman Biumi as Howell raced home to score the winning run.
The Eagles finished the game with 11 hits as Fitzgerald led the way with a 3-for-4 effort. He scored one run and knocked in a run. Hynes and Yoder added two hits each. Corbin worked nine innings, allowing four runs, three earned, on six hits. He struck out seven and walked one. Henshaw picked up the win to improve to 6-2 on the season.
Seven different Generals had a base hit in the ball game. Rudolph worked eight solid innings as the senior allowed four runs, three earned, on seven hits. Smith took the loss, allowing one run on four hits in 1.1 innings on the mound.
With the win, the Eagles advance to play Lynchburg College on Friday evening at 6 p.m. Lynchburg also won in extra innings with a 3-1 win over Randolph-Macon in 10 innings.
