Jackson, TN – Lambuth won its third conference series of the year this weekend as they beat the Bethel Wildcats two games to one. The Eagles have now beaten Union, Lyon and Bethel in conference series and split with Martin Methodist. This series victory put the Eagles at 6-3 in the conference, which is good for sole possession of third place behind Trevecca and Freed-Hardeman.
The weekend did not start very good on Friday afternoon as the Wildcats took advantage of 12 free passes by the Lambuth pitching staff and five Lambuth errors to put 16 runs on the board. Bethel scored in five of the nine innings and scored three or more runs in three of the five innings. Lambuth led after the second inning 1-0, before Bethel scored three runs in the top of the second. Lambuth would tie the score 3-3 after the third, but Bethel answered right back with seven runs in the top of the fourth and that is all the closer Lambuth would get the rest of the game falling to the Wildcats 16-7. Freshman Kory Bates (3-1) suffered his first lose of the year going three and a third innings giving up seven runs on six hits and walking four. Offensively the Eagles collected seven runs on nine hits, which should win most games. Leading the Eagles was Brandon Craig with two hits and scoring three runs, Mike Davis had two hits; both doubles and Bryan Willsey added two hits.
The Eagles would not hang their heads and came out strong on Saturday behind excellent pitching performances by Tony Perez and Brent Ebinger and great timely hitting by the entire Eagle lineup.
In game one of the doubleheader on Saturday Tony Perez loaded the bases with no outs in the first inning and recorded three straight outs to allow no runs and the Eagles took off from there. Lambuth would put three runs on the board in the second, two in the third and one in the fourth to take a 6-0 lead. Bethel would cut the lead to 6-2 on a two out single in the top of the fifth, but Lambuth would add two more in the top of the sixth to make the final score of 8-2. Tony Perez (4-2) got the win throwing a complete game giving up six hits and striking out five. On the offensive side, every one of the Eagles contributed to the win in some sort of statistical manner. While the first six hitters scored five runs on eight hits with each of them collecting at least one hit, the bottom three in the order scored three runs on three walks and three sacrifices that moved runners into scoring position. The Eagles had five sacrifices in the first game that proved it to be a total team effort in the win.
Game two ended in the exact score as the first, with the Eagles winning 8-2. Brent Ebinger (7-1) won his seventh game of the season, which is good for best on the team and in the conference. Brent threw a complete game striking out eleven and walking none. Lambuth fell behind in game two 2-0 going into the bottom half of the third. The Eagles would take advantage of a Wildcat error and wild pitch and Henry Sanchez drove in Chris Siljendahl to knot the score at two. Lambuth would blow the game open in the bottom half of the fourth with four runs all coming with two outs in the inning. The inning started with a two out double by Brad Barnes and ended with a two-run single by Ben White. Lambuth would add two runs in the bottom of the sixth when Siljendahl hit a one-out double and was driven in by White, who finished the game with three RBI’s. After a wild pitch Henry Sanchez would squeeze White in to make the final of 8-2.
White finished the game 2-2 with three runs scored and Chris Siljendahl was 2-3 with a double and three runs scored. With the wins the Eagles improved to 18-11 overall and as mentioned before 6-3 in the TranSouth Conference.
The Eagles will hit the road for the next couple of weeks. On Wednesday, March 26th they play Harris Stowe State, which is located in St. Louis, Missouri. Game time is set for 2:00 PM and will be one nine-inning game. Next weekend the Eagles will travel to Cumberland University for more TranSouth conference play. Hope to see you all at the ballpark!!!!
| Lambuth at | 2:00pm |
| Rhodes College | CST |
| Pre-season game (NCAA DIII) | |
