Trailblazers take advantage of free bases in road win over Volunteer State

GALLATIN, Tenn. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers picked up a big win over an NJCAA Division-I baseball team Wednesday afternoon as the Blazers took advantage of seven walks to come away with a 4-1 win at Volunteer State.

VU wasted little time getting on the scoreboard as lead-off hitter freshman Ethan Burdette (Linton, Ind.) reached base on a bunt single and sophomore Colin Long (Evansville, Ind.) followed him with a walk.

An RBI single by freshman Colton Evans (Henderson, Ky.) drove in Burdette as Long scored on a throwing error later in the inning to give Vincennes an early 2-0 lead.

The Pioneers looked to answer back by getting a run back in the second inning to cut the deficit in half but ran themselves out of an inning as the Trailblazers got the final out of the inning on a double steal attempt at the plate.

The score remained locked at 2-1 throughout the middle innings as the VU pitching held the Pioneer batters at bay.

Vincennes extended their lead in the seventh with an RBI single by Colin Long drove in sophomore Josiah Sizemore (Cambridge City, Ind.) who led off the inning with a walk.

VU earned an additional insurance run in the eighth when sophomore Connor VanLannen (Clinton, Ind.) came around to score on a throwing error by Volunteer State after getting on base with a lead-off walk to give the Blazers a 4-1 lead.

Sophomore Luke Osborn (Perrysville, Ind.) took the mound to get the final out of the eighth and looked to close the door in the ninth.

The first three Pioneer batters reached base in the bottom of the ninth, loading the bases for Volunteer State with no outs.

Osborn bounced back to strike out the following batter and get the next batter to ground into a game-ending double play to give the Blazers the 4-1 win and VU's first road win of the season.

"We just took advantage of their mistakes," VU Head Baseball Coach Chris Barney said. "We found a way to capitalize when they gave us extra outs or free bases and our guys really stepped up. Whether it was Ethan starting the game with a bunt hit and getting to second on a bad throw and then Colton steps up with a big hit to score a run. Those are the kinds of things that have plagued us all year and today it plagued the other team, so we are excited about that and we took advantage of it."

Sophomore Kestler Harbuck (Brooksville, Fla.) took the mound to start the game for Vincennes and came away with his first winning decision with a five-inning outing, giving up one run on four hits and striking out three.

Sophomore Braedon Nichols (Sullivan, Ind.) threw two no-hit innings of relief while punching out three.

Osborn came away with the four-out save, giving up one hit and striking out one batter.

"Our whole pitching staff today did a great job," Barney added. "Kestler gave us a great, quality start, going five innings and giving up one run. Then Braedon Nichols came in and threw two really good innings in relief. Then you have Eli Steimel (Sullivan, Ind.) who came in when we had a good lefty-righty matchup and got two outs out of that. Finally, Luke Osborn finished it out for the save. He obviously got into a little bit of a jam in the ninth by his own creation but got himself out of it with a strikeout and a double play. So, he worked himself into it and he worked himself out of it."

"That was the other big thing today," Barney said. "Our guys didn't give up any big innings and were able to get themselves out of jams. Kestler got out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning without giving up a run, so he did a great job there and at the end of the game Luke did a great job of stepping up and getting out of the jam. That was a big difference in the game today."

Vincennes will be in action next week as the Trailblazers hit the road to take on Rose-Hulman in Terre Haute, Ind. Wednesday, March 16. First pitch Wednesday is set for 6 p.m. eastern.

VU had three games scheduled to finish out the week that all were cancelled, with Thursday's home game against Oakland City being cancelled due to a change in OCU's schedule and a weekend series against Schoolcraft College in Detroit was cancelled due to inclement weather this weekend.

"We are going to give the guys a little break here for a couple of days and then we are going to get back after it on Sunday," Barney said. "There's nothing we can do about the weather and unfortunately we lost the Oakland City game because they had a conference game get rescheduled because of the weather. Then obviously, with the weather coming in, traveling from Vincennes to Detroit or vice versa won't be the safest thing to do on Saturday, so for that reason we are not going to be able to make that trip either way."

"That's just sort of where we are at," Barney said. "We just have to be ready when we come back Sunday, maybe we can find a game for Tuesday and if not we will play on Wednesday and then open up the MWAC Conference play on the weekend against Spoon River."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

Vincennes (6-9) – 200   000   110 – 4

Volunteer State – 010   000   000 – 1

HITTING STATS

2B – Egger. RBI – Long, Evans. SB – Long, Evans. BB – Long, Lane, VanLannen, Williams, Sizemore, Egger 2. HBP – Evans.