Trailblazers fall in midweek road showdown at Wabash Valley

MT. CARMEL, Ill. – The Vincennes University Trailblazer baseball team closed out the road portion of their 2022 Spring regular season Tuesday afternoon, taking the short trip down to face NJCAA Division I No. 3-ranked Wabash Valley.

The Warriors jumped out ahead early and held on as Vincennes fell by the final score of 11-1.

Wabash Valley jumped on the scoreboard early and in a big way in the first inning, scoring five runs in the first and adding an additional run in the second to take an early 6-0 lead.

The Vincennes pitching held serve in the third and fourth innings before the Warriors pushed a pair of runs across in the fifth.

The Trailblazers would get on the board in the sixth inning after freshman Jordan Roth (Delphi, Ind.) reached on an error and would score on a two-out double by freshman Nick Kapostasy (Cincinnati, Ohio).

Roth had a big day at the plate, reaching base in all three at-bats including a pair of singles, accounting for two of VU's four hits in the game.

Freshman Colton Evans (Henderson, Ky.) would get credit for the fourth hit of the game for VU, reaching base twice on a walk in the first and a single in the third.

Wabash Valley would put the game away in the sixth on a three-run walk-off home run to give the Warriors the 11-1 win.

"We had some guys with some bright spots today," VU Head Baseball Coach Chris Barney said. "Jordan Roth had two hits. Colton Evans had a couple of good at bats and Luke Osborn throwing two innings and only giving up one run and that came after a wild pitch, otherwise he would have never given up a run in that situation. Eli Steimel came out an threw really well also."

"There are some positives to take out of this game," Barney added. "It's been a tough week. We've got some guys banged up and we held three regular starters out of our lineup today that potentially could have made some type of difference. But that's just the nature of the beast as we get ready for another conference weekend on Friday and Saturday."

Freshman Cauy Motsinger (Salem, Ind.) got the start on the mound for the Blazers and threw the first inning of the game. Motsinger allowed five runs on four hits in his outing.

Sophomore Luke Osborn (Perrysville, Ind.) was the first Blazer out of the bullpen, throwing the second and third innings and allowing one run on two hits and striking out two.

Freshman Eli Steimel (Sullivan, Ind.) took over on the mound after getting the start in right field Tuesday to throw two innings, allowing two runs, both unearned, on three hits.

"Luke and Eli did a great job," Barney said. "Luke has done it all year for us. He got us to a point where we shut them down for two innings and the same thing for Eli. Those two gave us a chance, we just didn't have it offensively. We were down to our last four arms after playing four games the past two days and those two pitched well for us."

The Trailblazers will look to close out the regular season with a bang this coming weekend when VU hosts John Wood Community College Friday, May 13 and Saturday, May 14 at Jerry Blemker Field.

First pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. eastern on Friday and 12 p.m. eastern on Saturday. Vincennes only needs one win out of the four-game set to clinch a spot in the Mid-West Athletic Conference (MWAC) tournament in Normal, Ill.

"Hopefully our guys are going to get it together this weekend and fight," Barney added. "We are going to continue to battle and play good defense and hopefully get some quality starts out of our pitching. We've got an opportunity here where we obviously want to play well heading into the tournament. We need to win one game to ensure we get into the tournament and we should be able to do that based on what we have done all year long and how we've played guys and where John Wood is in the standings."

"John Wood went 1-3 this past weekend, so they know they have to win all four games to get themselves into the tournament as well," Barney said. "It's going to be a good weekend coming up with doubleheaders starting at 3 on Friday and Saturday at noon."

BOX SCORE

VU (21-30, 11-17) – 000   001 – 1

Wabash Valley – 510   023 – 11

VINCENNES HITTING

2B – Kapostasy. RBI – Kapostasy. BB – Evans, Williams, Bartlett.