Marshall University Athletics
Liberty Out-Slugs Herd, 9-8
3/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Liberty Out-Slugs Herd, 9-8
3/12/2005
- Box Score
LYNCHBURG, Va. - Liberty University designated hitter Jeff Brown recorded six RBI's to lead the Flames to an 9-8 win over the Thundering Herd baseball team Saturday afternoon at Worthington Stadium.
Brown went 3-5 with a grand slam and a two-RBI double in the game.
The Flames (10-3) opened the scoring in the second inning, tagging MU starter Chris Koutsavlis (Pittsburgh, PA) for three runs. With two outs, the Flames had four straight batters reach base. With one on, David Giamarresi hit an RBI triple to give LU a 1-0 lead. The next two batters would notch RBI singles to extend the lead to three runs.
Marshall (2-8) cut the lead to two in the top of the third when Adam Ptacek (Assaria, KS) hit a one-out triple and scored when Adam Frederick (Franklin, PA) grounded out to first base.
After a scoreless fourth innings, the teams combined for 13 runs over the fifth and sixth innings. The Herd started it off in the top of the fifth, scoring three times to take a 4-3 lead. With one out, Brent Mason (Sherwood, AR) and Ptacek reached on errors and Mason would score on a Frederick double. That brought up Aaron Jamieson (Lindsay, Ont.), who singled to center to score Ptacek and Frederick.
In the bottom of the inning, the Flames came back to re-take the lead. With one out, the Flames recorded three singles in a row to bring up Jeff Brown, who hit a grand slam to right field to give them a 7-4 lead. Freshman Andrew Hancock (Ashland, KY) replaced Koutsavlis in the inning and recorded the final out.
The Herd grabbed the lead right back in the top of the sixth. Roddy Stieger (Westchester, OH) and Brad Helm (Downingtown, PA) led the inning off with consecutive singles and Brent Mason was issued a one out walk to load the bases. Next up was Ptacek, who hit a bloop single to center to score Stieger and Helm. After Adam Frederick flew out to left, Jamieson walked to once again load the bases and bring up Joe Glevenyak (West Palm Beach, FL). Glevenyak batted in two more run with a single to left to give MU an 8-7 lead.
Liberty came back in the bottom of the sixth with two more runs to take the lead for good. With one out and the bases loaded, Brown struck again, hitting a two-RBI double to take a 9-8 lead.
From that point, only two batters between the two teams would reach base. Brian Knippelmeyer (Lincoln, NE) and Brendon Bump (Lawrence, KS) shut down the Liberty offense while Flame pitchers Phillip Thompson and Chris Zuvich shut down the Herd to give Liberty its tenth win of the season.
Thompson took the win for Liberty, improving to 3-0. Zuvich was credited with his first save of the season. Andrew Hancock took the loss for the Herd, dropping to 0-1.
Marshall's offense had its top run output of the season with eight runs. Frederick, Glevenyak, Jamieson and Ptacek each knocked in two runs on the day. Ptacek also scored three runs to lead the team while Brent Mason scored twice.
Chris Koutsavlis had a tough outing, giving up seven runs on ten hits in 4 2/3 innings. Hancock went 2/3 of an inning, allowing two runs. Brian Knippelmeyer, once again solid out of the pen, pitched a scoreless 2 1/3 while Brendon Bump recorded the final out of the eighth for the Herd.
Marshall will look to bounce back in game two of the series against Liberty on Sunday when the teams square off at 1 p.m.. The final game of the series is scheduled for Monday, also at 1 p.m..
