LYNCHBURG, Va. - Bridgewater College wiped out a 5-2 deficit with six runs in the top of the ninth inning Friday to stay alive in the ODAC tournament with an 8-5 victory over Virginia Wesleyan at Lynchburg's City Stadium.

Hunter Hensley led off the ninth with an infield single off Marlins' releiver Riley Koonce and Brendan Howell follwed with a single to leftcenter. Pinch-hitter Brett Jones was then hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs.

The Marlins then went to the pen again and Bridgewater's Austin Batten greeted Nick Ott with a single up the middle, pulling the Eagles to within 5-3. Ott retired Dylan Horne on an infield fly for the first out, but Cavin Clyde followed with a single, making the score 5-4. Kenner Berry struck out for the second out of the inning, bringing Chris King to the plate. King cleared the bases with a double to the gap in leftcenter to give the Eagles a 7-5 lead. King scored on a double by Ryan Leake for an 8-5 advantage. Hensley then singled to left, but Leake was thrown out at the plate for the third out of the inning.

Nik Milvo led off the bottom of the ninth with a single for the Marlins, but Eagles reliever Samuel Imeson struck out pinch-hitter David Derenske for the first out of the inning. Imeson then hit pinch-hitter Jordan Sprouse to bring the tying run to the plate. Deon Hammond grounded out to second for the second out of the inning and Imeson retired Brandon Kussmaul on a grounder to shortstop to close out the 8-5 comeback victory.

Imeson picked up the victory with three strong innings of work out of the bullpen. The freshman  lefty allowed no runs on two hits while striking out three batters.

The Marlins scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning to take the lead, but the Eagles used samll ball to tie the score in the top of the third.

Howell reached on an error to start the third and Parker Mead followed with a bunt single. Batten then bunted for a base hit and Howell scored on the play when the throw to first got away from  the first baseman. With runners at first and third, Horne bunted for a base hit and Mead scored to tie the score at 2-2.

The Marlins answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning to lead 4-2. Corey King was hit by a pitch and Justin Erby followed with a triple to center, giving the Marlins a 3-2 lead. Erby scored on a sac fly by Hammond to make it 4-2.

Virginia Wesleyan added another run in the fifth in a run-scoring single by Kussmaul to take a 5-2 lead.

Bridgewater, now 22-18 on the season, will play Hampden-Sydney in an elimination game Saturday afternoon at 12:30 at City Stadium. Hampden-Sydney knocked off No. 1 seed Shenandoah 4-3 Friday afternoon.