BASEBALL

The Forester baseball team wrapped up a four-game weekend series with a pair of losses, 8-5, 6-4, to #19 University of the Cumberlands (15-2) Saturday afternoon at Doyle Buhl Stadium. HU’s record now stands at 4-5 on the year.

Game one was a heart-breaker as Frame’s crew was one out away from a 5-3 win but one mighty swing changed all that. Raudy Martinez blasted a moon shot two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh to send the game to extra innings where another dinger, this time a walk-off three-run shot by Bryan Leef in the eighth, made for the abrupt ending. The Foresters left runners stranded on the corners in their half of the frame.

Prior to the Cumberlands’ late-game heroics, HU never trailed. Donovan Clark’s RBI-single through the right side in the top of the second got his team on the board. The Patriots knotted things up in the bottom of the inning but Adam Roser was quick to counter by ricocheting his first pitch off the right field fence foul pole for his first dinger of the year to open the third.

The Foresters extended their lead to 4-1 in the fourth setup by a well-executed double steal by Clark and Collin Landrum. With the pair in scoring position, Daniel Lichty knocked in Clark with a single up the middle and then Landrum scampered home on a wild throw.

Huntington’s fifth and final run came in the sixth when Lichty drove in his second run the contest, this time a double to deep right-center. All eight of UC’s runs came by way of the long ball as five Patriots sent one out of the park with the first three all solo shots in the second, fifth and sixth.

The Foresters collected eight hits with Lichty and Gustavo Bonilla each posting a pair.

Mason Shinabery tossed the first seven frames and gave up seven hits, five runs and three walks while fanning seven before being relieved by Joey Butz. The rookie hurler was charged with the loss having given up Leef’s three-run shot along with the two hits prior.

The nightcap had a completely different feel as the Patriots jumped out to a 6-0 advantage in the first forcing the Foresters to play catch up the rest of the way. Cumberlands continued to rely on their heavy bats as their first three runs came by way of a three-run blast after which they took advantage of a wild pitch for their fourth run and then added two more on a base poke two batters later.

Starting HU pitcher Caleb Landrum took the brunt of the Patriots’ early offense by giving up three hits, five runs and one walk to be charged with the loss. Gabe Freeman stepped in midway through the first to toss the next 4.2 innings before Adrian Perez tossed the final two out for the Foresters.

Huntington cut their deficit in half as soon as they had a chance. Ian McCutcheon singled in Andrew Natividad who opened up the second with a base on balls after which Satchell Wilson, hit by a pitch following Natividad’s walk, scored on an errant throw. McCutcheon then came around to score on Clark’s RBI-groundout for a 6-3 contest.

Both teams were quiet after that until the top of the seventh when HU registered the game’s final run on another RBI-groundout, this time at the bat of Roser.

The game featured just 11 hits with the Patriots enjoying the slight 6-5 advantage.

The Foresters open up league play on Friday with a single nine at Taylor.