PIKEVILLE, Ky. -- It was a long day at Johnnie Lemaster Field and one strife with controversy on both sides, but UPIKE baseball was able to open its weekend set against Campbellsville with a split in Saturday's doubleheader.
Game 1
The day's first game required extra time, but the Bears were able to walk away with the win, taking a 8-7 walk-off win in 10 innings.
UPIKE took a big early lead in the second inning with a four-run frame. UPIKE got a single, walk, and hit batter to load the bases with only one out. Jacob Alvarado was then hit to bring in the first run, and an error brought in the second. Luke Lubiniecki then finished the inning with a two-RBI single.
Campbellsville then tied it up with a four-run inning of their own in the sixth inning to chase starter Bruce Bell from the game. The sixth inning was Bell's only hiccup as he ran out of gas. Bell gave up eight hits but struck out nine in 5.2 innings of work.
After Campbellsville tied it up, the Bears took the lead right back with on another RBI knock from Lubiniecki and a later wild pitch to take a 6-2 lead.
But just like the previous lead, Campbellsville tied the game back up with two runs in the seventh. However, UPIKE took the lead back in its half of the seventh in unorthodox fashion. Pikeville got two runners on to start the inning, and after a sacrifice bunt, Shane Williams came around to score on a dropped third strike.
The Tigers tied the game again in the ninth to set the scene for extras. Pikeville's half of the 10th started with a single and double from Rodny Rodriquez and Tyler Menrath, respectively. An intentional walk loaded the bases, and then Jay Vincent hit a grounder to second. CU's second baseman went to turn the double play, but lost the ball in the process, allowing the game-winning run to come home.
Game 2
That momentum carried immediate dividends into the second game as the Bears got started in grand fashion, but Campbellsville took the lead late and salvaged a 7-5 win.
Alvarado sent the first pitch a UPIKE batter saw over the fence, and two pitches later, Menrath followed with a bomb of his own and Pikeville had a very quick 2-0 lead. But the Bears weren't done in the inning as Lubiniecki singled behind them and Dillon O'Grady followed with his NAIA leading eighth triple of the season to push the lead to 3-0.
That lead would stand to the fourth when things got controversial. Campbellsville loaded the bases with no one out and scored a run on a hit batter. A Tiger batter then hit a shallow fly ball to left, and the initial ruling was that Lubiniecki made a diving catch in left, then doubled off the runner at third and tagged the runner from second for a triple play that should have ended the inning.
The umpires then conferred and overturned the call to a single, and allowed a run to come in. The changed call seemed to deflate the sails of Pikeville as the Tigers ended up scoring four runs to take the lead.
However, Pikeville scored two runs in the second on an RBI fielders choice by Rodriquez and a RBI single from Mikey Swails, his first in a Bears uniform.
Campbellsville would take advantage of an exhausted Bears bullpen in the sixth with three runs to take the 7-5 lead that would last the duration of the game.
-UPIKE-
