GRAYSON, Ky. -- For the first time this season, UPIKE baseball broke out the brooms for a sweep in a three-game series, defeating Kentucky Christian three times over the weekend.

Game 1

For a majority of the weekend's first game, it appeared that the Knights may steal a game, but UPIKE floored it in the ending innings and earned a 12-3 win.

Bruce Bell took the start and did a strong job with managing trouble through his five innings of work. He gave up two runs on two hits and four walks, but struck out 12 Knights to keep his mistakes from becoming costly.

Meanwhile, the offense got started early before finding a lull in the middle of the game. Jacob Alvarado scored on a sacrifice fly from Tyler Menrath. Later in the first, Luke Lubiniecki hit a double and scored on a single by Anthony Houk to give the Bears a 2-0 lead. The Bears tacked on another run in the fourth after Dillon O'Grady led off the inning with a triple.

The Knights mounted a mini-comeback after that, scoring three unanswered to tie the game. KCU loaded the bases to start their half of the fourth and scored twice on a walk and HBP, but Bell struck out three batters to retire the side and limit the damage.

Bell's day was done after that, giving way to Austin Spada, who picked up the win in relief. Spada had a great outing with four hitless innings with an unearned run, walking two and striking out six.

UPIKE set the game aside late with nine runs in the last three innings. The Bears scored three in the seventh, two in the eighth, and four in the ninth.

Houk, Lubiniecki, and Alvarado each had three hits in the game. Houk led all batters with four RBIs, while Lubiniecki and Menrath each had two.

Game 2

UPIKE's bats cooled off a bit in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader, but the Bears capitalized on six Knights errors to win 9-4.

KCU got started early, scoring four quick runs off UPIKE starter Brady Cappe. The Knights scored three in the first, capped by a two-run home run.

After the second inning, Cappe was lights out, surrenderinging just one hit in the final five innings.

However, the Bears would take over starting in the third inning, scoring multiple runs for three straight innings. UPIKE started the third inning with three straight walks, then a fielder's choice, wild pitch, and hit batter resulted in the Bears cutting the lead to 4-3.

Pikeville took the lead in the fourth with help from two errors by KCU and an RBI single from Lubiniecki. The Bears then tallied three more runs in the fifth with an error, walk and hit batter all with the bases loaded.

UPIKE also scored an additional insurance run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly from Pastor Sanchez.

Game 3

The bats were back working in grand fashion in the series finale, a 13-2 run-rule victory for the Bears.

UPIKE did all of its scoring in the first and third innings. Pikeville sent 14 batters to the plate in a eight-run first inning that was mostly station-to-station baseball. The Bears had four hits, four walks, two hit batsmen, and two KCU errors contribute to the big inning. Lubiniecki, O'Grady, Luke Hartlage, Menrath, and Jay Vincent all had RBIs in the inning.

With an immediate 8-0 lead, starter Peyton Dove had an easy day of work, throwing a five-inning complete game. Dove gave up two runs on six hits, but struck out seven batters for his third win of the season.

Pikeville showed off a bit of power in the third inning with three extra base hits. Vincent had an RBI double with two on to get the scoring going, then on the very next batter, Houk hit a three-run home run, his third of the year, to give the Bears a 12-0 lead. Later in the inning, Pastor Sanchez had an RBI triple to extend the lead even further.

UP NEXT

UPIKE will be on the road this week with a midweek matchup in North Carolina against Montreat College, and then will head to Columbia, Ky. this weekend to face Lindsey Wilson College in Mid-South Conference action.

-UPIKE-