Brevard, N.C. – The Brevard College men’s baseball team stepped out of South Atlantic Conference play on Tuesday afternoon, as they welcomed the Tornado of King College to Gil Coan Field. The battle of the Tornados had to be settled in extra innings as King College came away with the 4-3 victory in 10 innings.

 

The Tornados struggled with the bats on Tuesday afternoon, as the BC offense knocked only five hits, all of which were singles, over the 10 inning contest.

 

Brevard got on the board first, pushing across three runs on two hits and a King College error in the bottom of the fourth.

 

Designated hitter Josh Miller led off the inning with a walk, followed by a Luke Lovelace single to right field to put runners on first and second with no outs.    Freshman first-baseman Matt Rose laid down a beautiful bunt down the third-base line and beat out the throw to first for the single. With the bases loaded, Miller scored from third on a wild pitch to give the Tornados a 1-0 lead. 

 

In the same at bat, shortstop Mitch Hefner hit a hard groundball to third to plate Lovelace from third, who had moved up on the wild pitch, to put BC up 2-0. However, on the play the shortstop attempted to get Rose out as he ran from second to third, only to have the throw mishandled by the third-baseman and allow Rose to reach third and Hefner to reach first safely.

 

With one out, second-baseman Zac Williams hit a deep fly ball to center, allowing Rose to tag up from third and score to put the Tornados up 3-0.

 

However, that was all the runs BC would score for the game as King scored the final four runs of the contest for the win.

 

King scored two in the top of the eighth on a Bryan Cruze double to left field which drove in two and cut the BC lead to 3-2.

 

In the ninth, the King College Tornado tied the score up on a Brett Cant RBI single up the middle with the bases loaded.

 

King College scored the win in the 10th, as catcher Matt Morris drew a walk with the bases loaded to put King a head 4-3.

 

King hurler Brandon Frye (3-1) pitched a hitless ninth to hold off BC and pick up his third win of the season. Frye allowed one hit in 1.2 innings of work, while striking out one BC hitter.

 

The loss went to BC’s Ryan Toney (2-4), as Toney went 0.1 of an inning, giving up one run on two hits.

 

Junior starter Seth Laughter picked up the no-decision despite a strong outing in which he allowed three runs on eight hits while striking out 11 King hitters in 8.2 innings of work on the mound.

 

At the plate, Lovelace was 2-3 with a run scored, while Matt Rose was 1-3 with a run scored. Spencer Linn was 1-3, while Williams and Hefner each had an RBI for the game.

 

For the King College Tornado, centerfielder Joe Craven was 3-4 with a double and a run scored. Cant was 2-3 with a double, an RBI and a run scored, while Cruze was 1-4 with a double and two RBIs.

 

The Tornados (9-28) will next be in action on Friday, April 11, as BC will hit the road to take on the Crusaders of North Greenville University. The first pitch is slated for a 2 p.m. start time.

 

###