Baseball Goes 1-1 in First Day of GPAC Games
(Hastings, NE) – Taking on Briar Cliff on the first day of a four-game series, Hastings scored three runs in the first inning of game one in their 4-3 win, then Briar Cliff won 11-5 in game two.
(Hastings, NE) – Taking on Briar Cliff on the first day of a four-game series, Hastings scored three runs in the first inning of game one in their 4-3 win, then Briar Cliff won 11-5 in game two.
In the bottom of the first, sophomore Tyler Rojas singled on the first pitch and scored on a deep triple to center by junior Evan Morrison. Junior Samuele Bruno brought in Morrison on a groundout and after sophomore Peighton Vargas walked and senior Chris Faherty stole a base as a courtesy runner, sophomore Cody Haynes drove him in to go up 3-0.
Briar Cliff had runners on second and third with no outs in the third, but freshman Connor Weber got out of the inning with three straight strikeouts. The Chargers managed to get their first run in the fourth inning on a one-out single, making it 3-1.
With two outs in the fifth, Bruno tripled to right center and Vargas brought him home on an RBI-single to take a 4-1 lead. In the top of the seventh, the Chargers got a couple of runs with two outs, but senior Brody Severin got a strikeout to end the game with the 4-3 win.
Morrison went 1-2 with a double and a walk, scoring a run and driving in a run as well. Weber pitched five innings, allowing one earned run on four hits and striking out seven to get the win. Severin pitched the final two innings, giving up two runs on three hits with one strikeout.
In game two, Briar Cliff got two one-out singles and scored the first run with two outs on a single to left. The Chargers loaded the bases in the second, but Hastings limited them to one run, as junior Carmen Severino came on in relief and got the final out of the inning down 2-0.
Hastings got the bats going in the third, as Faherty and junior Carter Guiton led off the inning with back-to-back doubles to score the first run. A sac bunt moved Guiton to third and he scored on a sac fly from Rojas to tie the game at two. They took a 3-2 lead in the fourth with Bruno reaching on a single and scoring on a two-out RBI single from senior Kaden Steen.
The first six Chargers reached in the top half of the fifth and they scored four runs in the inning to retake the lead at 6-3. Briar Cliff extended the lead to five at 8-3 with two more runs in the seventh. A three-run home run in the eighth pushed it to 11-3.
In the eighth inning, Hastings loaded the bases and junior Jared Delgado drove in two runs with a single to right, making the final score 11-5.
Up next, Hastings will wrap up their series against Briar Cliff tomorrow with a double-header at 12 and 2:30pm.
