WHAT A DAY! Lohman does his thing in G1; Buxton delivers walk-off win in G2

ALTON, IL – A key AMC series opened Friday night at Lloyd Hopkins Field as the Eutectics entered the night trying to run down Williams Baptist for the sixth and final playoff spot. The Eagles were in town to open a four-game series owning two more wins in conference play than UHSP. The Eutectics played inspired baseball in sweeping a riveting doubleheader against Williams Baptist winning 6-2 and then a come-from-behind 6-5 win in game two. Barrett Lohman was special in the opener, which has been the norm for him in big games. He held an offense that was hitting .309 to just five hits tossing a complete game win. The nightcap looked like the Eagles would even the day at a win apiece as they took a 5-1 lead to the bottom of the seventh. The Eutectics have played in a number of nail-biters lately and this time they were on the right side of the final outcome. A four-run seventh tied it up as Holden Campbell delivered a two-run double to left to make it 5-5 and Caden Buxton turned the lights out with RBI game-winning single to left in the eighth to score Matthew McDonald who led off the inning with a double.

GAME 1 HIGHLIGHTS:

UHSP 6, WILLIAMS BAPTIST 2

• Brandon Gibbs's first inning homerun, his fourth of the year, extended his hitting streak to nine straight games.
• Ethan Harrell's homerun was his fourth of the season.
• Lawson Aaron put the Eagles on the board with his third homerun of the year to lead off the second inning.
• The UHSP offense backed Lohman scoring two in the bottom of the second on back-to-back RBI groundouts by Gibbs and Holden Campbell.
• Lohman fought his way out of a treacherous fifth. Williams Baptist got the first two on and had runners at the corners with no one out. Lohman struck out Cody Jones and Gavin Mink before an error allowed an unearned run. But still leading 5-2, Lohman induced an inning-ending fielder's choice to minimize the damage and get out of the frame.
• The complete game for Lohman (4-5) was his team-leading sixth of the year. He allowed two runs, one earned, walking one and striking out seven. His seven strikeouts were the most in a single game for him in over a month since he fanned ten against Missouri Baptist on March 7.
• Parker Jeffries lost for just the second time this year (against six wins) as he also went the distance. All six runs were all earned on eight hits. He struck out five while walking two.
• Matthew McDonald and Jordan Gonzalez each had a pair of hits for UHSP.
• Tyrell Burnett had the lone multi-hit game for WBU.

GAME 2 HIGHLIGHTS:

UHSP 6, WILLIAMS BAPTIST 5 (8 INNINGS)

• Alex Orman hit a three-run homerun in the second. He had just one homerun and four RBI's on the season coming into the game.
• Matthew McDonald's team-leading sixth homerun of the season put UHSP on the board in the bottom of the second.
• Nash Koczka got the start and entered as the second-leading strikeout pitcher in the AMC having 68 strikeouts on the year. Koczka escaped a late inning threat as Holden Campbell led off the sixth with a triple, but Koczka struck out three straight after that. He struck out six Eutectics as he went six innings pitching into the seventh. He allowed three runs on seven hits.
• Kyle Smith got the start for UHSP and was pulled after giving up three runs on seven hits in two innings and striking out one.
• Cooper Thomas came on with one out in the seventh and gave up a game-tying hit to Holden Campbell. The Eutectics scored four runs in the seventh on three hits.
• Logan Stribling kept UHSP in the game going five solid innings in relief recording two strikeouts, two hits, with two runs against him. It is the second straight relief outing for Stribling where he went at least five innings.
• Gavin Long (2-1) started the eighth and walked a pair, but a tremendous play by Caden Buxton at third to retire Gavin Mink ended the frame. He would end up picking up the win.
• Jolby Jones (2-4) pitched the eighth for WBU and suffered the loss.
• The Eagles losing streak has now reached seven.
• Brandon Gibbs had an RBI single in the seventh to extend his hitting streak to ten games.

NEXT UP:

The Eutectics (16-26, 11-19 AMC) and Eagles (20-17, 11-15 AMC) continue their four-game weekend conference series. The Saturday doubleheader just became that much more important as the Eutectics pulled even with the Eagles in the conference win column. The Saturday games will be the final home games for the Eutectics, although the games will be played in O'Fallon, IL. To finish out the season, UHSP will play a twin bill at Principia on Tuesday at 5:00p and then wrap up the regular season with a four-game AMC series at Hannibal-LaGrange beginning next Friday. Williams Baptist meanwhile still has a conference series remaining against two teams in the top-5 in the conference standings: Central Baptist and Mission.