March 7, 2011
PORT CHARLOTTE, Florida - John Carroll jumped on top 4-0 in the first frame and then held on for a 9-7 victory over Bluffton University on Monday, March 7, 2011. JCU improved to 2-1 while the Beavers now stand 3-2 overall.
John Carroll went up 4-0 in the first inning on the strength of a three-run Tom Hickey triple. An RBI groundout by Aaron Miller gave JCU a four-run advantage before the Beavers took any cuts.
The Beavers got on the scoreboard with a run in the home half when Tyler Stephenson's (Springfield/Northwestern) RBI single plated Nick Broyles (Toledo/Whitmer) following his two-out double. John Carroll added two more tallies with a Ryan Konsler single in the top of frame two.
A couple Blue Streak runs in the fourth made it 8-1 before Kyle Niermann's (Napoleon) run-scoring base hit in the bottom half picked up Josh Runda (Lima/Bath) who laced a one-out two-bagger.
Another score by John Carroll in the fifth pushed the Blue Streak lead to 9-2. The Beavers answered with three runs on five hits, making it 9-5 after five innings. Runda drove in Matt McKinney (Columbus Grove/Bath) and Niermann continued to pound the baseball, singling home Miles Richardson (Granville/Newark Catholic). Josh Mendoza (Gibsonburg/Fremont Ross) capped the inning with an RBI single which pushed Runda across the plate.
Kyle Trainer (Mechanicsburg) smacked a two-out triple in the home half of the seventh. Nick Broyles followed with an RBI single and Stephenson made it 9-7 with his run-scoring double, but that was the end of Bluffton's offense as Robbie Bellusci nailed down the save for JCU with two perfect innings.
Kyle Niermann upped his hitting streak to 22 games with two base knocks and two RBI. Richardson went 3-of-5 while Broyles and Stephenson both tallied a pair of safeties. Broyles and Runda both scored twice and Stephenson drove in two runs.
Nick Rodesky (Bowling Green) fell to 0-2 after giving up eight runs on eight hits in 3.1 innings of work. Kyle Stover (Tipp City/Tippecanoe) and Adrian Fritch (Edon) combined on four shutout innings of relief, limiting the Streaks to three hits with four strikeouts.
The Beavers take on #8 Marietta at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 8, 2011.
-BEAVERS-