Florence, Ky. – The Transylvania baseball team used a timely ninth-inning rally to pull ahead of the Mount St. Joseph University Lions for a 7-5 win on Thursday night at UC Health Stadium.
The Pioneers won the third game of the regular-season series between Transylvania and Mount St. Joseph after the teams split a doubleheader in Florence earlier this month. Transylvania became the first team in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference to reach the 20-win mark on Thursday, moving to 20-8 overall while the Lions dropped to 10-20.
Transylvania received a pair of hits from Devyn Wilson-Cowan, Parker Tuszynski, and Trent Pahl to fuel a 10-hit evening for the Pioneers, who withstood a pair of tying answers by the Lions over the course of the evening before finding the go-ahead runs in the ninth inning to win the midweek matchup.
The Lions scored first in the bottom of the first with a sacrifice fly RBI against Transy starter Evan Burnett, but the junior stranded two runners to minimize the output.
Transylvania took its first lead of the night in the ensuing inning as Wilson-Cowan ignited the offense with a two-out single to the left side. Tuszynski followed with a base hit to right field and Pahl punctuated the momentum with a two-run single on a hard-hit shot up the middle for a 2-1 Pioneer lead.
Pahl rose to the occasion again in the fourth inning with his third home run of the season, a solo blast that increased Transy's upper hand to 3-1.
The Lions grinded back into the game, taking advantage of an error in the fourth to pull back one run and tying the contest at 3-3 in the next inning on an RBI single.
The sixth inning turned into a full-on joust as the Pioneers went back on top and the Lions evened up the game once more in the bottom of the frame. Pahl drew a bases-loaded walk for his fourth RBI of the night to hand the lead back to the Pioneers and Trent Youngblood scored Wilson-Cowan on a sacrifice fly RBI to forge a 5-3 ballgame in favor of Transy.
The Lions answered back with a two-run home run in the inning to tie up the game at 5-5 and the game went scoreless over the next two frames as reliever Jared Leuthart shut down the Lion order through the latter innings of the night.
With the game still tied at 5-5, Youngblood kickstarted the ninth inning with a single and Wade Lopiccolo moved the freshman over to second base on a sacrifice bunt. Hudson Chastain drew his second walk of the game to put two runners aboard.
Riley Willbur delivered his latest clutch hit of the season with a base hit through the left side to score Youngblood. After a moment of miscommunication by the Lions defense, Chastain sprinted home from third with home plate uncovered to suddenly add a second run in the inning, giving the Pioneers a 7-5 cushion.
Jake Schmidt reported in for the bottom of the ninth to quickly register two outs. The Lions found a last gasp single with two away, but Schmidt induced the final batter into a fly ball to Willbur in right field to earn his first save of the season.
Leuthart picked up his fourth win of the season to improve his record to 4-1, striking out two in two innings, allowing one hit and one walk. Burnett struck out five, issued three walks, and allowed four hits and two earned runs over the opening five innings of play.
Transylvania is next scheduled to play on Saturday, April 24 at the Hanover College Panthers in Hanover, Indiana. The conference doubleheader is currently slated for a 12:00 p.m. start.
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