Tech pitchers fan 16 but fall 7-2 in home opener
Three Tech pitchers combined for 16 strikeouts, but Tech’s bats were quieted by Cleveland State pitcher Anthony Sambula as the Tennessee Tech baseball team fell to CSU 7-2 in the first game a three-game set on Friday evening.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Three Tech pitchers combined for 16
strikeouts, but Tech’s bats were quieted by Cleveland State
pitcher Anthony Sambula as the Tennessee Tech baseball team fell to
CSU 7-2 in the first game a three-game set on Friday evening.
Adam Liberatore got the start for Tech and struck out eight batters
in 4.2 innings, allowing three earned runs. Wade Bilbrey came in
and went 1.2 innings and struck out four. Freshman Nick Price threw
the final 2.2 innings and fanned four batters.
Sambula pitched 8.2 innings for CSU and struck out 10 Tech batters,
and allowed just two runs in the win, handing Tech its first
home-opening loss since 2005.
“Their kid threw really well, and we didn’t play
well,” TTU head coach Matt Bragga said. “They were
better than us today. When we come out tomorrow hopefully
we’ll be better than we were today. We’ll be back, we
have a good team with a lot of good players and we’ll be
ready to go tomorrow.”
In a 6-0 hole in the bottom of the fifth inning Tech got
back-to-back hits to start the inning. Chad Hayes singled to center
field and Casanova Donaldson double to right center, which set up a
sacrifice fly from Frankie Beech that made the score 6-1. But Tech
was unable to do anymore damage in the inning.
After CSU made the score 7-1 in the seventh inning, A.J.
Kirby-Jones hit his second home run of the season for the deciding
7-2 margin.
Tech had runners on base in all nine innings, but hit into double
plays in the first three, and stranded 10 runners in the final
six.
“Those double-plays are really big, especially when
you’re trying to get something going,” Bragga said.
“That’s part of the game. We need to be tougher and be
able to battle back from those situations.”
Beech and Chad Oberacker each had two hits in the game. Oberacker
went 2-for-4, while Beech went 2-for-2 with an RBI. Tech finished
with two runs on eight hits and two errors, while Cleveland State
had seven runs on eight hits and no errors in the game.
The second game of the three-game series will be played Saturday at
Bush Stadium beginning at 1 p.m. The two teams will wrap up the set
with a game on Sunday at 1 p.m.
