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Wildcats Claw Past Quinnipiac in Baseball Pitcher’s Duel, 4-2 (ORMOND BEACH, Fla. – ) The Bethune-Cookman University baseball team finally held on in the end on Wednesday night as they outlasted a resilient Quinnipiac University squad by a count of 4-2 at the Ormond Beach Sports Complex in Ormond Beach, Fla. A pitcher’s duel took place from the second inning on between Quinnipiac’s Andy Mayer and B-CU starting sophomore Hiram Burgos. But the offensive explosion for the Wildcats of B-CU (7-15) took place in the early part of the game off QU starter Pat Egan … and this time it was enough for the defense to hold on, FINALLY! The Wildcats put their first six (6) men on safely to start the game as they batted around in the bottom-half of the opening inning. Right fielder Angel Mercado opened up the scoring with an RBI single to straight-away center field that plated third baseman Luis Gonzalez for the 1-0 lead. Mercado moved into scoring position on the same play with the aid of a fielding error from the Quinnipiac (2-5) centerfielder. First baseman Angel Negron continued the hot hitting for the Wildcats as he continued his hitting streak at seven games with a two-run scoring single through the left side that brought around Mercado and José Ortiz-Rivera. Ortiz-Rivera, for the first time in his career at B-CU was batting in the second spot today after collecting a streak of 76 consecutive games as the lead-off hitter for the Wildcats. Negron later scored on one of Egan’s two wild pitches in the inning. Egan was chased after the opening inning after giving up four runs on four hits and walking three batters in his season debut. Egan sat out all of last season with an injury. “It was good to see us get on top and finally hold on to the lead,” stated B-CU head coach Mervyl Melendez. “We didn’t panic in the end, and we stayed within ourselves mentally to get a big win over a good team tonight.” B-CU starter Hiram Burgos was throwing darts in the glove of catcher Drew Clark tonight as he worked quickly and with the fluidity of a weekend starter. According to Melendez, he looked as he was expected to look at the start of the year. “Hiram had his breaking ball working tonight without question,” commented Melendez afterwards. “He did what Dustin [Blackwell] has been doing all year long … setting up the breaking pitch with some good speed on his fastball. All the key elements were working for him, and we were prepared to leave him in there until he gave us all he could tonight.” Quinnipiac plated their first run of the game in unearned fashion in the top-half of the third inning as Ryan Rizzo started a two-out rally with a single, before advancing to second on an error charged to the B-CU infield. Randy Gress followed that up with a run-scoring single to centerfield to plate Rizzo in from second base. The Bobcats of Quinnipiac trailed 4-1 going into the eighth frame. That’s where the Bobcats would strike for one more of their two runs on the night as Gress hit his second homerun of the year clear over the left field wall to trim the B-CU lead to 4-2. That would then close the books on Burgos who finished with 7.1 innings of work on the hill, allowing just two runs (one earned) and scattering nine Quinnipiac hits and striking out a career-high nine batters with just one (1) walked batsman. As for Mayer, he did the trick for the Bobcats on the hill with just four hits allowed through seven innings of relief action. “I am glad we got the runs we needed when we got them,” admits Coach Melendez. “Mayer did a good job of keeping us off-balance, and we needed those early runs because he was doing well out there for them.” Fans in the Ormond Beach Sports Complex were waiting for the downfall after the Gress homerun as the “Curse of the Wildcat” talk began. But it appeared that reliever Dustin Blackwell was ready for the challenge as he entered the game to shut things down for the Wildcats in the eighth frame. Blackwell, a normal weekend starter like Burgos, struck out three batters and allowed zero (0) hits in his 1.2 innings of work. In the process, he earned his first save of the year. Quinnipiac was led on the night by Ryan Rizzo with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate that including one run scored. Behind him was second baseman Gress going 2-for-4 with two RBI, including the solo homerun in the eighth. Bethune-Cookman was led by Luis Gonzales as he stepped up and delivered from the lead-off position with a 3-for-5 outing as he scored one run. Also collecting a multi-hit day to keep his hit-streak alive was Angel Negron, going a solid 2-for-4 with two RBI and one run scored. The win went to Burgos who collected his first win of the season to improve to 1-2. The save was Blackwell’s first of the season, as well as his career. Quinnipiac’s Pat Egan took the loss in his first outing of the season to go 0-1. Bethune-Cookman will get back to the diamond on Friday night when they return to the Ormond Beach Sports Complex at 6 p.m. to take on the Savannah State University Tigers. The game is the first of a three-game set over the weekend, and will continue the current school-record 29-straight baseball games away from the friendly confines of Jackie Robinson Ballpark … supposedly the B-CU home field. The ‘Cats have yet to play a game at Jackie Robinson since May 10, 2006 against Florida Atlantic University. Renovations have been occurring to the playing surface at Jackie Robinson Ballpark since December, thus moving the Wildcats away from the facility until the process is over. --BCC--
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