Stephen F. Austin
Dallas Baptist
Patriots Pull Out Rain-Soaked Win Over SFA
4/27/2009 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 27, 2009
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The `Jacks battled rain throughout the afternoon in addition to the Dallas Baptist offense, which scored eight runs in the final four innings off the SFA bullpen to leave town with a 12-8 win on Monday at Jaycees Field.
SFA (19-24, 10-13 SLC) came up just one hit shy of a season-best with 19 off of the DBU (30-11) pitching staff, but 15 of those 19 hits came from the 1-thru-5 hitters in the `Jacks lineup. The loss snaps a five-game win streak for SFA, while DBU extends its win streak to eight consecutive games.
Johnny Cardenas sent six pitchers to the hill, combining for 10 walks and allowing 14 hits to a Patriot offense that entered the day hitting .352 as a team. Travis Harrelson took the loss, falling to 1-1 on the season for SFA.
For DBU, Chris Haney worked 2.1 innings for his fourth win of the season while Ryan Behmanesh struck out three and walked none in tossing the final two frames for his first save of the year.
Four of the top five hitters in the `Jacks lineup tallied at least three hits with Brian Ferguson finishing 4-for-5 on the afternoon with a pair of runs driven in. Ryan Priest, Tanner Hines and Sean Meyers also added three hits of their own with Priest picking up two doubles in his second straight 3-RBI game.
Ryan Enos opened the game with a double off the left-field wall off of SFA starter Erik Gregersen, and eventually put the Patriots on top 1-0 early when he scored from third on a ground out by Jason Krizan.
The `Jacks did not take long to drive DBU starter Ben Palmer from the mound as the top of the lineup delivered with five runs in the first two innings. SFA opened with four straight hits in the bottom of the first with RBI hits coming from Tanner Hines and Brian Ferguson before Ryan Priest drove in a run with a ground out. One inning later Zach Gardner got it started with a two-out infield hit that was followed by three straight singles from Hines, Sean Meyers and Ferguson to get to more runs home, giving SFA an early 5-1 lead.
DBU pushed across three more runs in the third to draw to within one run at 5-4, but SFA added single runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings on Priest's second and third RBI of the day and a sacrifice fly from Gardner to lead 8-6 heading to the seventh.
But the Patriots continued to battle back, getting to SFA reliever Travis Harrelson. A leadoff walk of Landon Anderson pulled DBU within a run once again just two batters later on a sacrifice fly by nine-hole hitter Clay Kely. Enos then struck again, launching a two-run over the right-field fence for his 14th home run of the year to give DBU a 9-8 lead in the seventh.
DBU added three more runs in the final two innings, giving Behmanesh plenty of cushion for his first save of the season.
The `Jacks get the week off until Friday when they leap back into conference play against third-place Sam Houston.
-SFA-
