Late Rally Powers Baseball to 16-9 Victory

PLEASANT PLAINS, IL --Blackburn College baseball scored nine runs combined in the seventh and eighth innings to defeat Wisconsin Lutheran College 16-9 Sunday afternoon for the team's first win of the 2024 season. 

Sophomore Brett Lander led the way with three hits and four runs batted in while senior Jason Hedges added two hits, two runs batted in, and also scored three runs. Senior Isaac Gleaves and junior C.J. Brunaugh both chipped in with two RBI's as well. Gleaves and Brunaugh joined freshman Colton Bultema with two runs scored as well. 

On the mound, sophomore Joshua Moreno threw five strikeouts. Bultema also collected four strikeouts and picked up the victory. 

Blackburn took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning. Freshman Gehrig Loera doubled to open the inning. Gleaves then walked. After an out, sophomore Andrew Garza singled to score Loera to get BC on the board. After a fly out, Hedges singled which allowed Gleaves to score and give Blackburn the 2-0 lead. 

Wisconsin Lutheran scored in the top of the second, but Blackburn answered with two more runs when Gleaves knocked a two-run homer for his first home run of the season. Sophomore Brett Lander also scored to move BC ahead 4-1. 

The guests added another run in the top of the third. In the Beavers portion of the inning, Brunaugh got on base after he was hit with a pitch and advanced to second when Hedges walked. After the second out of the inning, Bultema reached second on a passed ball by the WLU catcher which allowed Brunaugh and Hedges to score. Bultema then scored himself when Lander singled to move Blackburn up 7-2 after three innings. 

Blackburn would face a 9-7 deficit heading into the bottom of the seventh inning after Wisconsin Lutheran notched two runs in the fifth and five runs in the sixth inning. With two outs, Bultema singled to score Harley Carney. Carney had pitched ran for Garza who reached base after getting hit by a pitch, while Hedges, who also was hit by a pitch, advanced to third. After Bultema stole second, Lander hit a single which allowed both Bultema and Heges to score and gave BC a 10-9 lead. 

The Beavers shut out the Warriors in the eighth and added six more runs to secure victory. Zach Knox, Lozano and Diego Perez loaded up the bases for a Brunaugh single which scored both Knox and Lozano. Hedges followed with another single which scored Perez and moved Brunaugh to third. An error by WLC helped Medrano get to first and Hedges moved to second, loading the bases again. 

Brunaugh took advantage of a passed ball to score while Medrano and Hedges moved up a base, placing runners on second and third for as Lander came to bat. Lander lined out but the contact allowed Medrano to score for the Beavers sixth run of the inning. 

The six-run lead was too much for the Warriors to overcome giving Blackburn a 16-9 win for their first win of the season. 

Blackburn improves to 1-2 on the season and will return to action Sunday as they host Monmouth College.