Freshman designated hitter Mike McDermand's two-run home run in the top half of the fifth gave the Blackburn College Baseball Team a 6-5 lead and helped propel the Beavers to a 10-6 victory at the University of Dallas on Monday afternoon. Tyler Durand gave the Beavers six strong innings on the mound and survived another game of shaky defense to pick up his first victory of the season. Durand struck out five and gave up just four hits and two earned runs in 112 pitches.
The Beavers took a 2-1 lead in the third as Shane Lewis had an RBI walk and Walter Jarvis an RBI hit by pitch. The Beavers gave the lead up in the bottom half of the inning giving up three runs with the help of a pair of errors. The Crusaders added another run to take a 5-2 lead after four innings. The Beavers had four-run innings in the fifth and again in the sixth to take a 10-5 lead. McDermand's homerun in the fifth along with Ryan Steen and Nate Bassett RBI singles in the sixth were the big hits. Finally the Beavers showed some defense with Jarvis ending the bottom of the sixth with a diving catch on the foul warning track. Dillon Hensley followed Durand to the mound giving up just one run in two innings of relief. Brandon Smith closed out the ninth ending the game with a strikeout looking for a scoreless relief inning.
Bassett, McDermand and Smith all had two hits for the Beavers, who now improve to 2-8 on the season and will take on Southwestern University on Tuesday night in Georgetown, Texas. The University of Dallas is now 7-9 on the season.