RICHMOND, Ky. – The Lipscomb University baseball team suffered a 4-3 loss to Eastern Kentucky University in the opening game of a weekend series from Earle Combs Stadium on Friday night.
Final Score: Eastern Kentucky 4, Lipscomb 3
Location: Richmond, Kentucky (Earle Combs Stadium)
Records: Lipscomb (13-19, 6-7), Eastern Kentucky (7-28, 4-9)
HOW IT HAPPENED
With temperatures hovering around the mid-40s at the first pitch, Eastern Kentucky took advantage early off of starter
Cole O'Brien. Following a lead off walk, back-to-back base knocks, including an AJ Groeneveld triple, made it a 2-0 lead.
Lipscomb got one of the runs back in the second thanks to a
Damion Kenealy Jr. RBI single to left to score
David Coppedge. Unfortunately, EKU got it right back in the bottom half with an RBI single.
In the third, after
Aaron Stelogeannis reached on an infield hit,
Parks Bouck produced a dump job to right field off the end of his bat for the RBI hit.
From there, O'Brien settled in, as he faced the minimum in three of his final four innings, including a 1-2-3 frame in the third on six pitches.
In the fifth, after a one-out single by Diego Alana, he was gunned down at second base by
Jake Berg to help him escape the jam.
The Bisons played some small ball in the sixth to help tie the game. Following a hit by Coppedge, a sac bunt by
Kai Holm and a deep flyout by Kenealy moved him to third. After
Jacob Tobias worked a six-pitch walk,
Ryan Austin brought us even with a base hit through the right side to score Coppedge.
In the bottom half, following another one-out single by Silas Shaffer, Greg Caban had an eight-pitch at-bat, but O'Brien got him to line into the 4-3 double play to escape and keep the game square at three runs apiece.
Fast forward to the bottom of the eighth,
Jake Lynch saw the bases become loaded after a walk, throwing error and base hit. However, Gaban was able to induce his second twin killing of the game, a 4-6-3, Miller to Holm to Kenealy, to escape the jam.
In the ninth, the Bisons had a runner in scoring position with one out, but two flyball outs ended the threat.
In the bottom of the ninth, following a single and sac bunt to move the runner to second, Jackson Ginther induced a high chopper back to Lynch, but his throw was errant to first and that allowed Colby Ott score the winning run for EKU.
KEY STATISTICS
Cole O'Brien tossed his second quality start in his last three outings, going six innings, allowing three earned runs and punching out five batters.
David Coppedge recorded his 30th career game with at least two hits and a team-high 12th of the season with his 2-for-3 performance with two runs scored.
Ryan Austin reached in three of his four plate appearances with a single and two walks and also drove in a run.
HERD NOTES
Lipscomb turned three double plays on the night, matching a season-high from Evansville back on Feb. 18.
UP NEXT
Game two of the series will take place on Saturday night.
