The IUS baseball team was defeated by Campbellsville University on March 10 at the Koetter Sports Baseball Complex in six innings by a score of 21-7.
With the defeat the Grenadiers fell to 7-9, while the Tigers moved their record 14-2.
The Grenadiers fell behind early when Alex Sedam, junior pitcher, gave up four runs in the first inning.
Chris Curley, Campbellsville junior third baseman, finished the game with three homeruns and seven RBIs.
Ben Reel, IUS head coach, was impressed with Curley’s effort.
“He’s a really good hitter,” Reel said.
There was a scout for the New York Yankees in attendance to watch Curley.
“I think we may have got him drafted,” Reel said.
Sedam gave up nine runs on seven hits in one and two-thirds innings of work and was the losing pitcher, dropping his record to 1-3 on the season.
The Grenadiers answered with one run in the bottom of the first inning when Kyle Lenn, junior left fielder, drove in Drew Locascio, junior shortstop, with a single to pull the Grenadiers to within three runs at 4-1.
The Tigers added to their lead when they scored five runs in the top of the second inning to make the score 9-1.
Curley knocked in two runs with his second homerun of the game. Jimmy Voelker, Cambpellsville junior catcher, Alex Ponich, junior designated hitter, and Zach Townsend, junior left fielder knocked in a run each during Campbellsville’s five-run second inning.
Reel said the Grenadiers have made a habit of falling behind early in games this season.
“We can’t dodge the first punch,” Reel said. “We need to minimize the damage. We were scoring every inning too, but they were scoring at least two or three per inning and we were only scoring one.”
The Grenadiers answered the Tigers’ rally with three runs of their own in the bottom of the second inning. Trevor Summers, junior right fielder, knocked in the first run of the inning with a single to right field that scored Baird Hall, junior designated hitter.
Jordan Pass, sophomore second baseman, followed Summers with a sacrifice fly that scored D.J. Hutcherson, freshman center fielder.
The Grenadiers scored their third run of the inning when Lenn ripped a double that scored Summers and made the score 9-4 in favor of the Tigers.
IU Southeast closed the gap even further when Hall scored following an error by Nick Bertolucci, Campbellsville junior shortstop, and pulled the Grenadiers to within 9-5.
Campbellsville responded, scoring three runs in the top of the fourth inning.
Nathan Queensbury, Campbellsville senior second baseman, led off the inning with a double and was driven in when Ponich singled to center field. Ponich eventually scored on a wild pitch.
Colin Bryan, junior right fielder, also drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
IU Southeast narrowed the gap to 12-7 in the bottom of the fourth inning. Pass led off the inning with a double down the left field line and scored on an error by Curley.
The Grenadiers’ second run in the fourth inning came when Craig Roberts, freshman third baseman, hit an RBI double that scored Loscascio, who reached base on the error by Curley.
Ponich and Townsend each had an RBI in the top of the fifth inning to extend the Tigers’ lead to 14-7.
Curley struck again with a two-run homerun in the sixth inning that made the score 16-7.
Campbellsville added five more runs later in the inning to make the final score 21-7.
By ERIC MCGUFFIN
Editor
demcguff@ius.edu