March 21, 2009

Box Score

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (Saturday, March 21, 2009) - The Redhawks baseball team kicked-off the Ohio Valley Conference season on the right foot hammering Tennessee Tech, 14-2 in the opening game before rallying in game two for a 4-3 win at Bush Stadium on Saturday afternoon. The two wins snapped a season's long three-game losing streak and extended their winning streak over the Golden Eagles to four games dating back to last season.

Sophomore Louis Haseltine had quite the day in the opening game as he accounted for seven of the Redhawks (12-8, 2-0 OVC) 14 runs driven in. Pinch hitting in the sixth inning in a 3-2 game, Haseltine launched a one-out delivery over the left field fence for a grand slam homerun to blow the game wide open.

Haseltine and the Redhawks weren't through with the Golden Eagles (10-7, 0-2 OVC) pitching staff yet. In the eighth inning the Redhawks tacked on two more runs with Haseltine and Kenton Parmley driving in runs on back-to-back doubles to make it 9-2.

The final inning included more offensive fireworks for the Redhawks offense as they added five more runs for the final margin. Two of those runs came off the bat of Haseltine who recorded his second homerun of the game.

Haseltine's final stat line read that he went 3-3 with two homeruns, one double, three runs scored and an amazing seven RBIs.

The offensive explosion was a far cry from there last two games when the Redhawks were outscored 29-5 by Missouri State. Everything was clicking for Head Coach Mark Hogan and his club as the pitching and defense contributed to the game one victory.

Starter Kyle Gumieny (1-2) showed why he was anointed the No. 1 starter as he had his best outing to date in picking up his first victory of the season. He limited Tech to just two runs on nine hits in 5.2 innings of work while striking out four.

Ryan Poole and Josh Syberg came in for relief and yielded just three hits in 3.1 innings of shutout ball to secure the victory.

Tech jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead after the first three innings with the Redhawks answering with two runs of their own in the fourth Thanks to Justin Wheeler's two-run blast to left.

The Redhawks pulled ahead for good the following inning on Nick Harris'RBI fielder's choice.

Including Hasletine the Redhawks had four players with multiple hits. Wheeler went 2-4 with his seventh homerun of the season (tying him for the team lead), drove in three and scored two runs. Jim Klocke went 2-3 with a double and two runs scored. Parmley finished 2-5 with two doubles, one run scored and one RBI.

Trenton Moses went 1-4 and scored three times.

Tech starter A.J. Kirby-Jones was collared with the loss throwing five innings allowing three runs on four hits.

Chad Oberaker went 3-5 with a solo homerun to lead the Tech offense.

The Redhawks bats cooled a bit in game two as they scored in the top of the sixth in a 3-3 game and left the game to their pitching staff to pull out the victory.

In the sixth inning Haseltine again made the Golden Eagles pay but this time with his feet and not his bat. After reaching on a fielder's choice, Haseltine motored around from first on Moses' double to right center and beat the throw home for what would ultimately be the gamewinning run.

That put the game in the hands of Redhawks closer Klocke who pitched two perfect innings of relief to secure his fourth save of the season and the Redhawks win.

The Redhawks started the game much like the ended the opening game as they scored two runs in the opening inning highlighted by a Nick Harris RBI double and a run in the second off the bat of leadoff hitter Tony Spencer to give them a quick 3-0 lead.

The Golden Eagles countered with three runs in the fourth thanks in part to Alex Henry's two-run double.

Staff ace James Leigh remained perfect at 3-0 with a solid start on the mound. He allowed three runs on six hits and one walk while fanning five.

Spencer went 3-4 with an RBI single, one double and a run scored. It was his fourth three-hit game of the season. He also stole his team-best 10th base of the season.

Michael Alcorn (1-1) received the loss for the Golden Eagles, lasting 5.2 innings and allowing four runs on seven hits.

The Redhawks will look for the series sweep tomorrow as the two teams will play one game starting at 1:00 p.m.