Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 Gallery BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State University Billings baseball team earned a split in games three and four against Western Oregon University. The Yellowjackets won game three 9-4 but then lost game four 11-8. With the win, WOU took the series three games to one.
GAME 3: MSUB 9 WOU 4 The Yellowjackets scored five runs in the bottom of the second inning to take a 5-2 lead after WOU scored a run in each of the first two innings.
MSUB's first run came when
Conner Holbrook hit an RBI single to right field bringing
Blake Loran across home plate. Two more runs scored after
Bret Bitow hit a deep shot to center field and the WOU center fielder dropped the ball for an error allowing Bitow to advance to second base while Holbrook and
Brad Birch crossed home plate and give MSUB the 3-2 lead.
Brody Miller came to plate next and hit a singled to the short stop which allowed
Luke Reinschmidt to score. The very next batter,
Kevin Toon, hit a single to left field and pushed across Bitow from third base to score the fifth and final run of the inning and extend the Yellowjacket lead 5-2.
The Yellowjackets tacked on another three runs in the fourth inning. Miller reached first base on an error by the WOU right fielder which also allowed
Casey Merritt to score from third base.
Kevin Toon then hit a sacrifice fly to right field which gave Reinschmidt enough time to tag and score from third base. The last run came on an RBI single up the middle from Loran which pushed Miller across home plate.
Loran provided another RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning on a hit to second base that again allowed Miller to cross home.
The Wolves added one more run on a solo home run from Parker Miles, but closer
Jake Campeau successfully ended the game from the mound when he struck out Nate Etheridge to end the game.
Drew Christina started game three from the mound for MSUB going 6.0 innings, allowing eight hits, three runs and struck out two Wolves.
GAME 4: MSUB 8 WOU 11 The Wolves scored seven runs in the first inning alone and were helped by four Yellowjacket errors. MSUB would fight their way back into it when they cut the lead by more than half scoring four runs in the second inning.
Reinschmidt hit a bases clearing triple to score three runs in on one single swing of the bat. It was his fifth triple of the year. Bitow then hit a sacrifice fly to right field which allowed Reinschmidt to cross home plate and score the fourth run of the inning for MSUB and cut the WOU lead to 7-4.
WOU added one more run in the third inning, two more in the fifth and one final one in the sixth inning to extend their advantage 11-4.
The Yellowjackets added another three runs in the sixth inning. Birch scored on an error by the third baseman followed by
Trevor Nix being able to score on a Merritt sacrifice fly out to left field. The final run of the inning came on an error from the WOU cater allowing
Drew Fosnes to score from third base.
The Yellowjackets mustered one on run in the bottom of the seventh after Loran hit a single to right field to lead off the inning. Loran was then subsequently moved around all the bases as he advanced to second, third and finally home all on wild pitches from WOU, but the WOU seven run first inning proved too much as the Wolves went on to the 11-8 victory.
Joe Andriolo started game four for MSUB. He put in 4.1 innings of work, allowed 12 hits and ten runs while striking out one WOU batter.
"
Drew Christina gave us a great outing today in game three to help us get a much needed win," head coach
Rob Bishop said. "Overall in the series, we were just not good enough defensively to give ourselves a chance at more wins. The next three weekends will determine our post season fate. We will go back to work this week and focus on the areas that we need to work on to be successful."
The Yellowjackets continue their home stand as the host Saint Martin's University next weekend in a four game series on April 18th and 19th.
