Box Score

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Jumping out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first, highlighted by freshman Kyle Pollock’s first career home run, the University of Evansville baseball team held the advantage the entire way, topping Austin Peay, 7-3, Wednesday night. The victory improves the Aces’ record to 11-6 on the year.
 
“It was good win for our ball club against a good opponent,” said head coach Wes Carroll. “We got off the bus ready to hit, scoring seven runs in the first three innings and our bullpen in Josh Biggs and Zach Taylor did a heck of a job getting a bunch of goose eggs for us. Hopefully we can keep it rolling into the weekend.”
 
Sophomore Ryan Billo (2-0) earned the win, throwing five innings, allowing three runs, six hits, while striking out four. Out of the pen, Biggs hurled two perfect innings with two strikeouts, and Taylor also held the Governors off the board in the eighth and ninth frames, mowing down one.
 
Junior Jason Hockemeyer led UE’s offense that put up 11 hits, including five for extra bases, going 3-for-5 with two RBI and a run scored. Eric Stamets (2-for-4), Jake Mahon (2-for-2), and Andy Lasher (2-for-3) also recorded multiple hits in the win.
 
Stamets led off the first with a double down the left field line and Jake Mahon walked, setting up Hockemeyer’s two-run double to left. With one out, Pollock immediately followed with the Aces first long ball of the season, giving UE a 4-0 head start.
 
Austin Peay answered with one run in the bottom of the frame, stringing together a single and RBI double.
 
After a 44-minute lightening delay, the Aces expanded the margin in the second inning with two more runs. Lasher led off the inning, pulling a double down the left field line. Stamets belted a triple to right-centerfield, scoring the junior, and Mahon’s sacrifice fly brought in Stamets for a 6-1 lead.
 
The Governor’s Matt Wollenzin led off the bottom of the second with a solo homer, but that would be all the damage in the side as Billo retired the next three batters.
 
UE kept the run-streak going in the third, as Kevin Kaczmarski walked with two outs, moved to third on Chris Pearson’s single through the right side, and crossed the plate on Lasher’s single to the left side of the infield.
 
The Governors made it a four-run game, 7-3, in the fourth, hitting a single and triple back-to-back with two outs, plating one. However, that would be the last run of the ballgame for either side as the bullpens silenced the bats for the night.
Throwing six arms in the contest, starter Casey Delgado (2-2) took the loss after two innings of work.
 
The Aces are back in action this weekend, hosting Western Michigan for a three game series at Charles H. Braun Stadium. Game one is set for 6:00 p.m. CT Friday.