OWENSBORO, Ky. --- Point Park University baseball won both games versus Brescia (Ky.) University on Saturday night to open the River States Conference weekend series. The Pioneers won 14-4 and 6-5 in the first conference games of the year for both teams.
The series concludes with the third-and-final game on Sunday at 11 a.m ET from the same location of Chataqua Park in Owensboro, Ky.
Saturday's games had the Point Park offense rack up 22 hits and the pitchers combine for 20 strikeouts on the day. Starting pitchers Marco Quintanar (5.2 IP) and Christian Negron (5.0 IP) earned the victories with Ryan Huber and Ruben Ramirez backing them up in the bullpen.
POINT PARK 14, BRESCIA 4 (8 INNINGS)
Point Park broke the game open with a combined 10 runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. The Pioneers scored four runs in the top of the eighth to build the lead to 10 runs. Brescia was unable to score in the bottom half, so the game ended early on the 10-run rule.
The Pioneers scored in seven of the eight innings. Ed Pfluger was a big bat going 2 for 4 with a homer and two RBIs. Luis Mujica went 3 for 4 with a double and three RBIs. Luis Hernandez was 3 for 5 with three RBIs.
Mujica, Pfluger and Hernandez had RBI hits in the first, third and fourth innings as the score was 3-3. Pfluger's solo homer gave the Pioneers the lead for good, 4-3, in the fifth.
A three-run sixth featured Mujica's two-run double. The three-run seventh had a Danilo Leon drive in two with a triple and Hernandez add a run-scoring single. The four runs in the eighth had Tyler Dobie stroke a two-run double and Hernandez follow later in the inning with an RBI base hit.
Marco Quintanar (2-0) got the win in 5.2 innings pitched. He gave up six hits and three runs. Ruben Ramirez came in the game in the sixth and pitched the final 2.1 innings in a non-save situation.
POINT PARK 6, BRESCIA 5
The Pioneers built a 6-1 lead after an inning and a half and held off a late rally from the Bearcats to make it a doubleheader sweep.
Point Park starter Christian Negron (2-0) gave up only one hit in his 5.0 innings. He struck out eight, walked two, and only one of the two runs charged to him was earned.
The Pioneers gave Negron the lead with a five-run second inning. Brescia had multiple errors in the inning, and the big RBIs were by Carlos Sanchez on a base hit and Pfluger on a sacrifice fly. Tyler Dobie had given the Pioneers a 1-0 lead with a two-out hit in the top of the first.
Ryan Huber pitched a scoreless sixth inning, but Brescia struck for three runs in the bottom of the seventh. That cut the score to 6-5 with two runners on and nobody out. Ramirez came in to strikeout the side and work around a one-out walk. He picked up the save by stranding the bases loaded.
