VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State Blazer baseball team put up a season-high 23 runs in a seven-inning mercy rule showdown against the Alabama Huntsville Chargers on a warm Friday evening in Valdosta, winning 23-7. VSU improved to 12-10 (7-6 GSC) while UAH dropped to 14-10 (3-7 GSC).
Seven Blazers had multiple RBIs, as senior
Jacob Harper led the way with five driven in on three hits. Sophomore
Dennis Pierce blasted his sixth homer of the season while junior
Hunter Stowe hit his fourth of the year while graduate student
Owen Lawn and junior
Cole Steinmetz smacked their first home runs on the season. In total, Valdosta State recorded 19 hits and two errors while Alabama Huntsville recorded 13 hits and had five miscues.
Junior
Nick Ferrara recorded his first win of the season in 1.2 innings pitched. Junior
Zac Dodson got the starting nod, as he pitched 3.1 innings and allowed four earned runs on 56 pitches.
The Chargers got on the board early with a three-run homerun in the top half of the first. Errors plagued Alabama Huntsville, as leadoff hitter
Pedro Moreno would score on an error as it was 3-1 in favor of UAH.
Hunter Stowe got ahead with a 2-0 count and was sitting dead red the next pitch and got exactly what he ordered and lifted a high fly ball over the left field fence to bring home Pierce and tie the game at three.
In the bottom of the second, Valdosta State jumped out to a 9-4 lead thanks to six hits and two errors by Alabama Huntsville as VSU capped off the second inning by a two-out single from catcher
Jacob Harper.
The third inning didn't slow the Blazers down, as they put up five more runs in the bottom of the third as
Hunter Stowe drove in another two runs and Harper recorded another two RBIs on a double to grow the lead to 13-4. Yet another Charger miscue led to a 14
th run to score as it was all Valdosta State through three.
A run in the top of the fifth from the Chargers made it 14-5. In the bottom of the fifth, the Blazers went for the jugular as VSU scored seven runs on eight hits in the bottom of the fifth as it was capped off by a homerun from the slugging Philly native in
Dennis Pierce, as it was all Valdosta State through five, leading 21-6.
In the top of seventh, sophomore
Raynel Ortiz got the job done in four batters as Valdosta State came out on top, 23-7.
The Blazers will play in a doubleheader tomorrow with the 1979 National Championship team being honored around 12:30 p.m.
