LANCASTER, Pa. – The Hood College baseball team showed no mercy against Lancaster Bible College, forcing a seven-inning mercy rule and defeating the Chargers 18-4.
At the Plate
Alex Jenkins (Ashburn, Va./Stone Bridge) went 2-3 with a walk and three RBIs courtesy of a home run.
Jacob Saylor (Walkersville, Md./Walkersville) also finished 2-3 with a home run.
Tyler Schwarzman (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Mechanicsburg) finished the game with four RBIs.
Although
Austin Rhue (Milton, Del./Cape Henlopen) officially finished 0-1 at the dish, he drew four walks and scored three times.
On the Mound
Joe Alexander (Leesburg, Va./Loudoun County) picked up the win, allowing just one hit and one walk through seven innings and striking out seven batters.
How it Happened
It took a couple innings for Hood's offense to get in a groove, but they came out with a bang in the third inning, loading the bases before Schwarzman drove in two runs with a double before an exceptionally wild pitch allowed both Rhue and himself to score.
Cameron Day (Hagerstown, Md./Clear Spring) capped off the inning with a solo shot to left field, giving the Blazers a 5-0 lead.
The onslaught continued the next inning, with
Stephen Sommer (Leesburg, Va./Loudoun) capping off a four-run inning with the team's second bomb of the game to further extend the lead.
Hood came close to enacting the 15-after-five run rule, putting up five more runs in the fifth inning after Saylor mashed a three-run home run to start the inning off before the Blazers got two more runners to touch all four bases and extend their lead to 14-0, stranding the would-be mercy-rule runner on second.
The Blazers put one more run on the board in the top of the sixth inning, but Lancaster Bible broke up the shutout by putting up four runs of their own, including back-to-back home runs, to extend the game at least another inning.
One final deep shot from Jenkins in the seventh put Hood up 18-4, and the Chargers could not score any to push the game to the full nine innings, as their third out ended both the frame and the game, sending the Blazers home early with a win.
For the Opponent
Shane Stephan finished the afternoon 1-1 with a walk and a home run.
Blake Greenly went 2-3 in the game.
Up Next
The Blazers return home for a doubleheader against McDaniel College Sunday, March 3 at 12 and 3 p.m.
