Marlins Split with Brockport State, Schedule Altered for Saturday

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The Virginia Wesleyan College baseball team rallied for a 5-3 victory in the first game of Friday's doubleheader with Brockport State before a big inning cost the Marlins in a 7-6 game two loss.

Game 1: 5-3 Virginia Wesleyan Victory

Brockport started off the game with a first inning run to put the pressure on the Marlins. Dane Cala singled to center, followed by a wild pitch and bunt that advanced him to third. Paul Ludden grounded out to shortstop Brandon Kussmaul to drive home Cala.

The Marlins responded to the Golden Eagles in the bottom of the third inning. Kussmaul singled through the right side and advanced to second after a failed pickoff attempt. Kussmaul moved up to third on a Taylor Erby groundout before scoring on an RBI single off the bat of Randy Neisz.

The Marlins scored again during the bottom of the fourth as Deon Hammond and C.J. Lindsay led off the frame with singles, moving up 90 feet on a Zack Clark sacrifice bunt. Corey King grounded out to shortstop, scoring Hammond to make the score 2-1.

Taylor Erby doubled with one out in the bottom of the fifth, scoring on Hammond's single up the middle to make the score 3-1. Hammond scored later in the frame on Clark's single, his first collegiate RBI.  The Marlins tacked on another run in the sixth to take a 5-1 lead.

Brockport went on to score one run in both the seventh and eighth innings but were unable to defeat the Marlins as Riley Koonce entered the contest to pick up his second save.

T. Erby, Neisz, Hammond, and Clark each had three hits while Neisz added two RBI, and Hammond, two runs.

Chance Pauley (1-0) surrendered two runs on five hits in seven innings of work. Koonce worked a perfect ninth with a strikeout.

Game 2: 7-6 Brockport St. Victory (7 innings)

The Marlins started off the nightcap with two runs in the first inning. Kussmaul was hit by pitch with one out, being chased home by Taylor Erby's triple to right-center. Erby then scored on a groundout by Neisz for the 2-0 lead.

The Marlins tacked on lone runs in the second and third innings on RBI singles from Justin Erby and Lindsay to take a 4-0 lead into the fourth inning.

Brockport used a hit by pitch to Drew DeBlasiis and back-to-back singles from Joe Bender and Luke Gilbert to play its first run and swing some momentum to the Golden Eagle dugout. The Marlins went to the bullpen and a subsequent passed ball made the score 4-2. After loading the bases on walks, VWC turned to the 'pen again. Two singles and a wild pitch scored four more runs, putting the guests up 6-4. DeBlasiis drove in the seventh run of the frame as the Golden Eagles batted around.

The Marlins scored two runs with two outs in the bottom of the fifth as Jordy Ellis doubled down the left-field line. Brockport turned to closer Nick Jerolimov to try to finish off a seven-out save.

He struck out the next Marlin batter to get out of the jam and faced just seven batters total to get all seven outs. Jerolimov struck out three while collecting his second save.

Lindsay went 2-for-4 with two runs scored while Hammond added two hits, and Ellis contributed two RBI.

Virginia Wesleyan (2-4) will host Ithaca College (0-0) Saturday in a noon contest. The game, originally scheduled for a 3 p.m. start, was moved up due to the threat of severe weather Saturday afternoon.

Ithaca will face Brockport St. (2-2) Saturday at 9 a.m., three hours earlier than the original noon start that was scheduled.