JACKSON, Tenn. – The University of West Alabama baseball team picked up a Saturday doubleheader split over Union University to open Gulf South Conference play, Saturday afternoon from Fesmire Field.
UWA earned the 10-9 victory in the opener, and fell 2-1 to UU in the nightcap.
After Saturday's action, West Alabama is now 6-4 and 1-1 in the GSC, and Union is 5-5 and 1-1.
GAME 1: West Alabama 10, Union 9
Despite the chilly conditions on Saturday, the West Alabama bats were on fire in the first inning, seeing four straight hits that led to two runs. With the damage all going with two outs,
Chase Dejean brought the first run home on an RBI double, and
Blake Vineyard followed with a base knock.
The Bulldogs made it a 2-1 game in the bottom half of the inning with a RBI single.
After seeing Sam Poindexter toss 27 pitches in the first inning, UWA kept the momentum going with a run in the second. After
Cade Horton led off the frame with a full count walk, he would take second on a failed pick off attempt where the shortstop dropped the ball as Horton touched the bag.
Three batters later,
Kyle Vogler's RBI fielder's choice made it a 3-1 lead.
The Tigers used more two-out magic in the fourth inning, scoring six runs. 10 men came to the plate in the inning that was capped by back-to-back two-run hits by
Nick Thibodeau and
Cade Horton.
After swelling the lead to 9-1, West Alabama was unable to obtain the shutdown inning, as Union responded with a six-run inning of its own to make it a 9-7 score.
The score stayed that way until the bottom of the seventh, when Canyon Pace and Dyllon Barrett posted back-to-back hits to bring home Alec Hardy and Grant Ross to even the game at nine.
Cade Miller came in and shut down the threat in the inning, and the momentum swung back to the UWA dugout. In the eighth, after loading the bases and with two outs,
Jack Beck was plunked with a pitch to score Vineyard for the go-ahead run.
Miller worked around a lead-off single in the eighth to keep the score 10-9, and in the ninth,
Gates Pee stranded the tying run 90 feet away after back-to-back strikeouts to earn his third save of the year.
Cade Miller (1-1) shut down the Bulldogs in the seventh and eighth, tossing 1.2 innings and striking out two men in relief to earn the win.
Chase Dejean recorded a 3-for-5 day at the plate with a double, two RBIs and two runs scored.
Blake Vineyard also went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and RBIs each.
The Tigers were hit by a pitch seven times in the game, led by
Nick Thibodeau's two and added two RBIs.
GAME 2: Union 2, West Alabama 1
After game one lasted over three and a half hours, and with the sun fading, the paced picked up immensely in the night cap with a 1:44 contest.
In the third, Union dented the scoreboard first with an RBI hit by Grant Ross.
In the fifth, the Bulldogs added a key insurance run after Alec Hardy laid down a suicide squeeze bunt to score Carson Chavies, who led off the inning with a single.
West Alabama had no answer for Eli Snelson, only scratching across one hit through the first five innings. However, the third time through the order was a different story. After back-to-back hits by
Bryce Newman and
Kyle Vogler,
Houston Kitterman cut the deficit in half with an RBI groundout.
The Tigers had the tying run at second base with two outs, but a strikeout by Snelson ended the threat.
In the seventh, after a fielding error started the inning by
Ryan Fletcher, the threat was immediately erased with a double play and strikeout as Snelson pitched the complete game three-hitter.
UWA was only able to knotch three hits in game two.
Bryce Newman,
Kyle Vogler and
Cade Horton all saw base hits by their name.
Maxwell Schumacher (1-1) tossed as good of a game as Snelson, going the distance in the seven-inning affair, allowing one earned run on five hits with five strikeouts. Similar to last week, he strike rate was phonemical. Tossing 84 pitches, he fired 54 in the strike zone.
West Alabama will wrap up the series on Sunday at Union for a 1 p.m. first pitch from Jackson, Tennessee.
