WILMORE, Ky. -- Point Park University baseball battled for a 4-2 victory at Asbury (Ky.) University Friday night in the opening game of the River States Conference weekend series. The Pioneers (8-2, 1-0 RSC) weathered some early hitting by Asbury (10-3, 0-1 RSC) and scored single runs in four separate innings to get the victory.
The series, which has been tabbed the "NAIA Big Series of the Week" by @NAIABall, continues on Saturday with a doubleheader at 12 p.m. ET. Live Video and Live Stats will be provided by Asbury.
Asbury had the bases loaded with one out in the second and third innings and with no outs in the eighth inning, but the Eagles got a combined one run in those three frames. Point Park starter Nick Beardsley got himself out of jams and left the bases loaded in the second and third while reliever and winning pitcher Ruben Ramirez worked out of the jam in the eighth.
It took Point Park a while to get anything off of Asbury starter Will McDonald, who pitched 8.0 innings. He gave up only six hits but took the loss. Ty Andrews got the Pioneers on the board with a solo homer in the fourth inning, which tied the score at 1-1.
The Pioneers inched out to a 2-1 lead in the sixth when Jouseph Renovales led off with a single, stole second with two outs and then scored on Alejandro Pelaez's base hit.
In the Asbury sixth, a walk, a bunt and Kaiden Zacharias's double tied things up at 2-2. That was it for Beardsley, who went 5.1 innings and gave up two runs on nine hits. Ramirez, who pitched the final 3.2 innings to get the win, stranded Zacharias at second with a strikeout and a groundout.
Point Park got the winning runs in the seventh and ninth innings. In the seventh, it was Antonio Carrillo delivering an RBI single. In the ninth, Cole Horew and Danilo Leon reached on a walk and an error, respectively. They both moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Luis Hernandez, and Horew raced home on Carrillo's sacrifice fly to deep right right field.Hernandez was 1 for 1 with two sacrifices, with his bunts setting up both go-ahead runs.
Ramirez (2-1) gave up two hits and no runs in his 3.2 innings. He walked two and struck out four. Both walks were in the eighth, and after an error, the bases were loaded. But Ramirez struck out the next batter, and the next hitter bounced into a double play back to the mound.
