The Falcons baseball team was swept away in the Mule Mix Classic tournament in Nashville by the Lipscomb Bisons on Friday 2-0, the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders on Saturday 20-8 and the Belmont Bruins on Sunday 7-5.
“We wanted to see improvement this weekend,” Falcons Head Coach Danny Schmitz said. “We showed up in the first (game) of it, but we’re still not hitting on all cylinders in the three phases: the pitching, the defense and hitting. If you have all three phases going, you have a chance winning a ballgame.”
Friday’s game began with both teams going scoreless until the third inning, when Lipscomb got a run across on a double play with the bases loaded and no outs. That was the only run of the inning as Lipscomb took the early 1-0 lead. However, both starting pitchers did a good job of containing the offenses. It was the sixth inning when Lipscomb added another run on an RBI single. That was all the scoring either team would get as Lipscomb took the 2-0 victory.
“We pitched extremely well, we pitched well enough to win,” Schmitz said. “Unfortunately, we only got one hit in the game, so we played really good defense, but when you only get one hit and don’t score any runs, you have to pitch a shutout and hope for a tie.”
Saturday’s game against Middle Tennessee had a similar start to Friday, with neither team getting on the board until the third. Sophomore catcher Joe McGuinness got an RBI double and junior infielder Randy Righter got an RBI groundout for the Falcons to give their team an early 2-0 lead. However, Middle Tennessee responded with an RBI double, RBI single, a pair of 2 RBI doubles and an RBI sacrifice fly in the bottom of the inning to take a 7-2 lead. Middle Tennessee added to their lead in the fifth inning, taking advantage of a run scoring fielding error, bases loaded walk, RBI single, RBI double and a run scoring throwing error to make it a 13-2 game.
The Falcons were able to get a run back in the sixth as Righter scored on a wild pitch, however Middle Tennessee came back with a 2 RBI home run, 2 RBI double, RBI single, RBI groundout and RBI double to take a 20-3 lead at the bottom of the inning. The Falcons began to make a comeback in the eighth as senior infielder Nick Glanzman hit a 2 RBI double, sophomore outfielder Blake Jenkins got a 2 RBI single and freshman outfielder Nick Piazza scored on a wild pitch, but Middle Tennessee had too much of a lead to overcome, and they took the 20-8 win.
“We started off good, we got the two run lead, but before we could blink we gave up seven,” Schmitz said. “We didn’t keep any momentum at all, and that’s just unacceptable. Any time we score, we’ve got to put a zero on the board. It’s extremely important, and we didn’t do that.”
Sunday’s game saw Belmont jump out to a lead early, as an RBI triple and run scoring wild pitch in the first inning gave them a 2-0 advantage. However, the Falcons came back in the fourth inning as Jenkins got an RBI single, freshman outfielder Jake Wilson drew a bases loaded walk, McGuinness hit a 2 RBI single and Righter hit an RBI single for a 5-2 lead. The team held the advantage until the eighth inning, when Belmont put together a big inning of their own with an RBI double and a pair of 2 RBI singles to reclaim their early two run lead. The Falcons were unable to respond in the final inning as Belmont took the 7-5 win.
“I give our guys credit, we scored five in the top of the fourth,” Schmitz said. “But then we didn’t do anything for the next five innings… we let Belmont stick around and they eventually came back and beat us.”
The team will play next Friday, Saturday and Sunday on the road against the Morehead State Eagles.
