Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 BRISTOL, Tenn. – On a very cold day, the King University baseball team took the field against Slippery Rock University as the Rock opened their season. Not a great day for the Tornado as they fell in game one 5-0 and played a strong game two till the latter innings as Slippery Rock won game two, 6-2.
Slippery Rock (1-0) started their 2015 season off on a bang opening the top of the first inning in game one scoring two runs on three hits off King's starting pitcher Jose Sola. In the inning, King also recorded one error. King would have a quick bottom half of the first, going down in order. The Rock would tally one hit in the top of the second before Sola got out of the inning. Preston Douglas got King on the board in the hit column with a single to left center. Douglas was caught stealing before Jonathan Perez-Castaneda ripped a single into right field. The inning would end there for King as he was caught stealing as well.
Neither team would get anything going in the third inning and Slippery Rock got three more runs in the top of the fourth on four hits. King would go down in order in the bottom of the fourth inning. To start the top of the fifth, Andrew Phemister replaced Sola. Phemister allowed two hits but no runs would score as King got out of the inning trailing Slippery Rock 5-0. The Rock would make a pitching change as well to start the inning but King could not figure him out either tallying nothing in the inning.
King (1-7) would not tally the hit the remainder of the game, falling to Slippery Rock 5-0 in the Rock's first game of the 2015 season. Sola was handed the loss for the Tornado as Ryan Oglesby earned the win. Jon Anderson recorded a save after posting three innings of work. Slippery Rock tallied 12 hits to King's three. The Tornado also posted two errors while the Rock registered zero.
Game two of the doubleheader started well for King as Alex Martin retired the Rock in order to start the game. Braden Cook would lead off for the Tornado posting a hit and advanced to second on a wild pitch. No one would push Cook across as the first inning ended with the score Slippery Rock 0, King 0. Martin walked the lead-off batter of the second inning but got the next three to go down, posting two quick innings. In the bottom of the second, Mark Michael reached on a two out bunt single followed by a Moises Soto single to right field, advancing Michael to second. The inning would end on a strikeout and both teams remained scoreless.
In the top of the third, Slippery Rock got on the board off of a leadoff single. The single was followed by a fielder's choice and another single brought the runner around to score. The Tornado answered in the bottom of the third as Braden Cook got on base with a single to start the bottom half of the inning. Cook then stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error from the catcher. Forrest Haga registered a sacrifice fly/ run batted in on a long fly ball into center field. After three innings of play, King and Slippery Rock were all tied up at one.
The fourth and fifth inning would fly by as both team's combined for one hit, the hit coming in the bottom of the fifth when Tyler Bailey bunted for a base hit. Slippery Rock would take a 2-1 lead in the top half of the sixth inning off a single, a King error and finally a sacrifice fly to deep center field. Nothing would go for King in the bottom of the sixth and moving to the final inning of the contest King looked to win it in walk off fashion.
However, Slippery Rock would gain a large advantage tallying four runs on five hits in the top of the seventh. Soto would single to start the home half of the inning and Cody Rogers would come around to score on a Bailey single to right field; Rogers came in for Soto as a pinch runner. The game would end and King would fall to Slippery Rock 6-2. Despite a good outing, Martin was handed the loss for the Tornado while Kyle Schneider was given the win. James Divosevic registered the save for the Rock. In the contest, King posted 7 hits to Slippery Rock's 8. Cook, Soto and Bailey all recorded two hits for the Tornado in the outing.
King will square up next on Saturday, February 14 when they will host Slippery Rock University for the final two games of their four game series. First pitch is scheduled for 11:00 am.
