Lipscomb Hands Baseball 8-6 Loss

Saturday, February 27

Nashville, TN

3 PM

Army West Point

2-4

Lipscomb

4-2

Army West Point

Lipscomb

Lipscomb Hands Baseball 8-6 Loss

February 27, 2016 | Baseball

Box Score

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Army West Point baseball team pounded out 15 hits, but Lipscomb came out on the winning end of an 8-6 decision on Saturday afternoon at Dugan Field.

Justin Reece, John McCarthy and Matt Hudgins each recorded three base knocks, with McCarthy and Hudgins driving in two runs apiece. Ryan Levenhagen and Keegan Vega both added two hits for the Black Knights in the loss.

The loss dropped Army to 2-4 on the season and Lipscomb improved to 4-2.

Army was on the board first in the top of the first inning when Hudgins delivered a sacrifice fly to left field that was deep enough to score Reece from third. The Bisons answered with a run in the home half and scored in each of the first four innings to take a 7-2 lead against Army starting pitcher Garrison Franklin.

Lipscomb scored twice in the second inning on a two-run double by Adam Lee and plated three runs in the next frame after the Black Knights plated an unearned run in the top of the third. A throwing error allowed Tevin Symonette to score the first run before Michael Gigliotti and Lee Soloman each brought home a run with RBI singles.

Franklin (0-1) was charged with seven runs, five earned, on 12 base hits in 3.2 innings. Freshman Cam Opp replaced him and struck out seven in 3.1 innings in relief. Opp gave up two hits and one run before classmate Tyler Giovinco tossed a scoreless eighth.

Trailing 7-2 after five full innings, Army closed the gap to one run with a four-run outburst in the sixth. All of the runs came with two outs as McCarthy brought home Kris Lindner and Vega with a single to right. Hudgins and Levenhagen each followed with RBI singles to cut the Lipscomb lead to 7-6.

"The players fought hard to come back after the early deficit," head coach Matt Reid said. "They showed a lot of character in coming back, and we have to continue to work hard every day in order to improve and get better."

Lipscomb added on what proved to be an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth when Zeke Dodson's ground ball to third base with the bases loaded made it 8-6.

Dalton Curtis closed out the game by getting the final two outs of the eighth and working around a two-on, nobody out jam in the ninth. He picked up his second save of the year to preserve the win for Jeffrey Passantino.

The Lipscomb starter gave up five runs (one earned) in 5.2 innings. He allowed nine hits and fanned seven to improve to 2-0 on the season.

Army continues its weekend in Nashville, Tenn., on Sunday afternoon when it takes on Belmont at 1 p.m. ET.