Danville, Ky. – The Transylvania baseball team overcame an early deficit against the Centre College Colonels on Thursday night, winning a big road game 13-9 with a tremendous performance from the bullpen and timely hitting.
The Pioneers made some noise right away, as in the top of the first
Trent Youngblood walked and eventually scored on an RBI single from
Walter Munday. The Colonels responded with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the first, and plated 5 total runs to claim a big early lead.
With eight more innings to work with, Transylvania gradually chipped away, as
Calvin Schubert touched home on a wild pitch in the third, and also had a sacrifice fly in the fourth to score
Matt Broadwater, making it a 5-3 game. All the while,
Jake Schmidt worked through the Centre lineup, putting 0 after 0 up on the board. The senior finished the day with 5.0 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, allowing just three hits, with eight strikeouts.
In the sixth, still down 5-3, the Pioneers took off with four straight singles to start the inning, including
Griffin Hall's knock to right field to score
TJ Keck.
Austin Taylor came through with the fifth single of the inning to score
Brennan Perry and tie the game. Transy wasn't done there, as
Trent Youngblood did more damage with a double to center, giving the Pios a two-run lead. Two more runs came across in the inning courtesy of a wild pitch and an error, and Transylvania led their rivals 9-5.
In the top of the seventh, Schubert hit another sacrifice fly to add to the lead, and a 2-RBI double from Taylor padded the lead even more. Going into the eighth, Transy led 13-5. In the later innings
Matt Armstrong and
Kaden Hill pitched scoreless frames with two strikeouts each.
In the bottom of the ninth and down by eight, Centre found life again as they scored for the first time since the first. They plated four to make things a bit more interesting, however, Youngblood shut the door on the mound in a do-it-all night, as the sophomore had two big hits and 3 RBI.
The Pioneers travel to Defiance, Ohio for a conference doubleheader against Defiance College on Saturday, April 2, with a 12 & 3 PM scheduled start.
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