Baseball Falls to Austin

SHERMAN, TEXAS -- The Blackburn College Baseball team travelled to Texas for their spring break trip and started the week by taking on Austin College Saturday and Sunday. The Beavers were unable to pull out victory as they fell to the Roo's 11-5 on Saturday, then fell 4-0 and 3-2 in Sunday's doubleheader. 

Junior Andrew Lozano led the Beavers with five hits, including a double, and three runs batted in. He also scored a run. Sophomore Brett Lander added three hits, an RBI and a run while senior Jason Hedges, junior Ian Sullivan, and freshman Dominic Medrano all chipped in with two hits. Medrano also had a double with Hedges contributing a team best two runs as well. 

On the mound, juniors Alex Coffman and Peyton Blackburn both notched four strikeouts. 

The weekend action started with BC taking on Austin Saturday afternoon and Blackburn faced a 3-0 deficit heading into the top of the fifth inning. Freshman Harley Carney helped get the Beavers on the board to narrow the deficit after reaching first on an error then scored off a single from senior Isaac Gleaves. 

Blackburn tied the score in the sixth. Senior Zach Knox singled which Hedges followed with a single of his own to put runners on first and second. Lander brought both runners in with a single to tie the game at 3-3. Unfortunately, the 'Roo's responded with a seven-run seventh inning. The Beavers scored two runs in the top off the eighth when Lozano hit a double to score Lander and Hedges but Austin added one more run in their eighth and captured the 11-5 victory.

Sunday opened with Austin winning 4-0. In the final game of the weekend, Blackburn jumped out to a 2-0 lead by scoring a run in both the first and second innings. The game started with a Lozano single then Carney was hit by a pitch. A ground out helped Carney and Lozano advance to second and third. Junior C.J. Brunaugh followed with a sacrifice fly to left field which allowed Lozano to score to put BC ahead 1-0. 

Facing two outs in the second inning, Sullivan singled then stole second to get in scoring position. Lozano followed with a single and Sullivan crossed home plate to make it 2-0. The 'Roo's scored in the sixth and trailed by a run as they entered the bottom of the seventh. Unfortunately the hosts managed to score two runs in the inning to capture the 3-2 victory. 

Blackburn will take Monday off from action and will return to action Tuesday to take on Howard Payne University.