Lipscomb baseball drops first home series since 2013

Despite defeating the No. 1 team in the nation last week, the Lipscomb baseball team came up short losing the series to the University of North Florida this weekend at Ken Dugan Field at Stephen L. Marsh Stadium. The Bisons lost the first game of the series 4-3. They took the second game 11-3, but lost the final game Sunday 8-0. “I have to give credit to North Florida as they showed all weekend that they could hit,” head coach Jeff Forehand said. “They made it very difficult for us and in the end we didn’t get the job done.” Forehand went on to talk about the outstanding pitching performance by UNF. “When a team pitches that well and makes great runs it’s difficult to get into the game. If we don’t get a run through, we can’t really play the game.” This is the first home series Lipscomb has dropped since the weekend of April 26, 2013 when Stetson came in and took 2-of-3. North Florida senior Trent Higginbothem, gave the Ospreys the initial lead hitting his sixth home run of the year, a two-run shot in the third inning. UNF pitcher Matt Vaka allowed only a couple of hits and three walks in five innings, in the final stage of the series. Throughout the whole afternoon, Vaka only allowed three runners to move into scoring position, which lowered his ERA to 1.72 for the season. The only chance the Bisons gave themselves to score was in the sixth inning when Josh Lee lead by drawing a one-out walk to give Lipscomb a scoring opportunity. Following the walk, Allan Hooker almost tied it...

Walk-off error leads Bisons to Battle of the Boulevard victory

Thanks to an error from the Belmont catcher in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Bisons won the Battle of the Boulevard 10-9 on Tuesday night at Ken Dugan Field at Stephen L. Marsh Stadium. Sophomore Hunter Hanks scored the winning run for the Bisons after freshman Tyler Brown put the ball into play, forcing Belmont catcher Alec Diamond to hurry his throw. The ball sailed past the first baseman giving Lipscomb the victory. The hit by Brown was his first walk-off of the season. “I was honestly caught in the moment,” Brown said. “It was my first walk-off, and I had a great time. I couldn’t have done it without my teammates.” Brown was the designated hitter for the Bisons, but that didn’t cause him to feel any more pressure than normal during hit at-bat. “It is my role on the team this year,” Brown said. “I had to stay calm and do my job.” Belmont jumped on the board first with two runs in the top of the first inning, but Lipscomb answered with three runs. The Bisons scored two runs in the bottom of the third with a big hit from senior Jonathan Allison. Lipscomb coach Jeff Forehand called a double steal that brought freshman Michael Gigliotti home from third. Lipscomb scored two more runs after sacrifice flies from Allison and Gigliotti. In the bottom of the seventh, the Bisons scored two runs on a sacrifice bunt from redshirt freshman Allan Hooker and an RBI single from freshman Jeffrey Crisan. Redshirt junior Jaesung Hwang started the game for the Bisons, but after Hwang left the game, the Bisons bullpen blew a seven run lead in the top of...

Baseball takes two of three from Xavier

The Bison baseball team won the series with Xavier over the weekend, but Xavier took the Sunday game 5-1. On Friday night Lipscomb played small ball as senior Jonathon Allison and redshirt freshman Allan Hooker both had run scoring singles in the bottom of the first inning. It was not until the top of the sixth that Xavier center fielder Brian Bruening hit a two run homer for the Musketeers, the only two runs scored by Xavier. Lipscomb scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh, with a RBI single from senior Grant Massey and an insurance run provided by redshirt junior Adam Lee. The Bisons final tally of the game came with a run scoring double from freshman Jeffrey Crisan. The second game of the series, resulted in an 11-1 win for Lipscomb. Xavier started the third inning with a run that ended up being their only score of the game. Lipscomb answered right back, scoring two runs of their own in the bottom of the third. In the bottom of the fourth, Lipscomb had a lead-off homerun by Allison. The Bisons had a big inning in the bottom of the fifth, scoring five runs, and senior Grant Massey started it with a two-run scoring double. Allison provided a run scoring double, and Hooker provided a RBI triple. Hooker also scored the final run of the inning on a wild pitch. It was not until the bottom of the eighth that Lipscomb again scored three runs on a two run homer from freshman Michael Gigliotti and a run scoring triple from senior Mike Korte. In the final game on Sunday...

Baseball sweeps La Salle in a powerful offensive weekend

The Bisons baseball team finished out a three-game sweep of La Salle with a 7-5 victory Sunday afternoon at Ken Dugan Field at Stephen L Marsh Stadium. In the final matchup between the two, the Bisons took a 3-0 lead in the first inning before clinching the 7-5 win, and continued to score throughout the game. The Bisons produced at the plate all weekend even with different lineups. The series opener took place Friday afternoon, when the Bisons took the 8-2 win. In the game, redshirt freshman Allan Hooker took advantage of his first start of his college career. Hooker finished with three RBI’s and a two-run home run in his first career at-bat. The Bisons finished the day with 12 hits. Senior Ian Martinez-McGraw came away with the win. On day two of the weekend, Lipscomb pounded La Salle with a 13-5 victory. Hooker had another stand-out day for the Bisons as he led the team with four RBI’s and went 3-for-3. The Explorers jumped on the Bisons with a 1-0 lead in the second inning, but Lipscomb responded in the fourth inning, and never looked back. Head coach Jeff Forehand said that he is most proud of the fact that his players are having quality at-bats. Freshman Michael Gigliotti finished the day 4-for-6 and junior Chucky Vazquez finished 2-for-5. Senior pitcher Nick Andros started the game for the Bisons and pitched 4.2 innings. Transfer Kyle Weller came in relief and finished the last 4.1 innings. Redshirt sophomore Tyler Bethune made his first appearance of the season for the Bisons during Sunday’s final matchup. Bethune, finished the day 2-for-3 and was the...

Baseball team excited to find new identity in 2015 season

Leading in to the 2015 season, the Lipscomb Bisons baseball team will focus on the current team and not get caught up on last season’s success. The Bisons made it to the conference championship game in the 2014 season, only to fall short to Kennesaw State, but majority of the team returned with big ambitions for this season. “When you have a team that ended on a little bit of success, and the majority of that team is coming back, there was a little bit of momentum that’s come from the end of last season,” Head Coach Jeff Forehand said about the end of last season. Even though the team finished with more success than they have in past years, they are still not satisfied and want to look to go even further. Forehand mentioned one of the big differences from last year’s team and this year’s is that the 2014 team really had no expectations set for them.  “There really was no expectation [last year] because there hadn’t been anything prior to that, that we had done. I think that’s kind of a scary thing, that this year there are a few more expectations,” Forehand said. “Not that we’ve been picked to win or anything like that, but I think people have recognized how we ended and that we’re getting better, so there are some expectations this time.” Forehand said that he wants his team to focus on the present team’s identity. “I guess it is hard to kind of not think about last year since we did come so close, but I mean we got a whole new...