Baseball opens with wins in snow
Cameron Blair
Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: Sports
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Eastern opened play with a marathon game against Bucknell Saturday.
The Colonels and the Bison played to a 7-7 tie during a 14-inning game that lasted more than four hours and was eventually called due to darkness.
The Colonels trailed several times during the game but were always able to come up with a clutch hit to get back in the game. Eastern trailed 4-2 in the bottom of the eigth inning before taking advantage of poor defense by Bucknell.
Eastern loaded the bases with no outs before junior second baseman Matt Davis scored on an error to cut the Bucknell lead to 4-3. Senior first baseman Clint Seymour followed with an RBI single to tie the game and eventually force extra innings.
An error by senior shortstop Tyler Barnett with a runner on third allowed Bucknell to take a 5-4 lead in the top of the 11th inning. Barnett quickly made up for the miscue by leading off the bottom of the inning and eventually scoring on a two-out single by junior right fielder Dylan McMaine to tie the score once again at 5-5.
"I consider myself a leader on this team," Barnett said. "And I didn't want to be the guy that cost us the win in our first game of the season."
Barnett was not finished with his late-inning heroics.
After two Bison runs in the top of the 13th inning gave Bucknell a 7-5 lead, Barnett once again led off the bottom of the inning with a base hit. A double by Davis put runners at second and third with no one out. Sophomore third baseman Anthony Ottrando came through with a base hit to tie the game at 7-7.
The teams played a scoreless 14th inning before the game was called.
Head Coach Elvis Dominguez was pleased with his team's effort in the freezing temperatures.
"I'm really, really glad to see the way our guys battled back," Dominguez said. "Because a year ago, I'm not sure we come back to win some of these games."
