The Falcons Get Clawed By The Tigers

Recap, photo courtesy of Fisher

Campbellsville, KY- The Falcons baseball squad headed out Wednesday evening for their Spring Break trip that features contests against five different institutions in three separate states. The first matchup was this afternoon as Fisher took on the Campbellsville University Tigers (6-7) for the first of four games this weekend. Senior hurler Zach Leblanc (Salem, MA) was looking for his sixth win of the season and the offense jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, but they could not hang on and fell 11-5 to the Tigers under the lights at HIG Field.

Freshman leadoff man Jorge Sanchez (Caguas, PR) led off the game with a triple off Tigers starter Anthony Arias to left field to fire up his offense early on. Just a batter later, Mitchell Lundholm (Plymouth, MA) grounded out to shortstop, plating Sanchez to get the Falcons on the board first, 1-0. Leblanc pitched a 1-2-3 first inning but the Tigers opened up a 4-1 lead after the bottom of the second after giving up four walks and a hit. He then settled down for a clean third inning, but the Tigers tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the 4th. After striking out two Tigers batters, with two outs the Tigers catcher Austin Peterson smacked a homerun over the left field fence to put his team up 6-1. CU collected another run in the top of the 5th off of Leblanc, forcing Coach Dulin to go to his bullpen. Yamil Delgado (Caguas, PR) was able to pitch out of the jam and the Falcons headed to the top of the sixth chasing six.

The Falcons got to within two in the sixth as they scored four runs in the frame. After Jacob Deziel (Merrimac, MA) was hit by a pitch to start the inning, back-to-back singles from Lundholm and Jonathan Rosado (Bayamon, PR) allowed Deziel to score the first run of the inning. A hard grounder from Ismael Perez (Brooklyn, NY) to the Tigers second baseman forced an error, plating Lundholm and moved Rosado up a bag, forcing the first pitching change for the Tigers. The CU reliever, Malcom Grady struck out his first batter, however a single from Ivan Rivera (Brooklyn, NY) scored Rosado for his first RBI of the afternoon. A pinch hit from Cameron Pearson (Orlando, FL) with two outs plated Sami Bibovic (Brooklyn, NY) who came in to run for Perez, bringing the Falcons within two at 7-5. The Tigers answered right back in the bottom of the inning as a lead off walk for Brandon Douglas proved costly as the next batter doubled him in to put the home team back up 8-5. John Hilcher (Bloomfield, NJ) entered the game for the Falcons and was able to get an out, and John Travieso (Miami, FL) struck out the last Tiger of the inning to keep the score 8-5. The Tigers tacked on three insurance runs in the bottom of the 7th and would hold on for the 11-5 victory in the first of four games between the two teams.

Joshua Rogers (Highlands Ranch, CO), Rosado, and Rivera all had multiple hits on the afternoon as they combined for six hits and a pair of RBI's. CU's Bryson Wallet was the offensive leader for his team as he went 4 for 5 with three RBI's in the victory. Leblanc suffered his second loss of the season, going 4.1 innings alllowing six hits and striking out four in the losing effort. Arias earned his second win of the season going five innings, scattering six hits and striking out five.