Williamsburg, KY – The UC Baseball team returned to Doyle Buhl Stadium on Saturday after a soggy rainout day on Friday to host the Tigers of Georgetown College for a big Mid-South Conference doubleheader. The Patriots would take advantage of big errors by the Tigers in the first game to come away with a 6-5 victory before coming away with a 9-0 win in dominate fashion in game two. The pair of wins improves UC to 29-3 overall on the year, 7-0 in MSC play, and extends their winning streak to 25 games.
 
Game one would see Josh Avila dueling against Shawn Dubin, who has already won MSC pitcher of the week honors four times this season. UC would strike first in the bottom of the opening inning. A leadoff double by Roberto Prado and fly out would result in a runner on third with one away. A Tiger error on Antonio Monroy (E6) would see Raudy Martinez on first and Prado coming in to score to make it 1-0. Later in the inning, Alex Dominguez would triple to deep right and be brought home on a RBI single by Daniel Diaz to give UC a 2-0 lead.
 
That score would hold until the top of the fourth when GC would cut the lead in half. On the first pitch of the inning, Tyler Wagner would hit a solo home run, his first of the year, over the left field fence to make it 2-1 Patriots. Cumberlands would answer though in the bottom of the frame. With runners on second and third with one down, Reed Spata would draw a walk with ball four being a wild pitch. Britton Elmore, who was courtesy running for Andrew Ramos after his leadoff single, would come in to score on the wild pitch as Bryan Benz advanced to third from first while Spata went to second on the errant pitch as well, making it 3-1 UC. Prado would add to the lead with a RBI single of his own, bringing home Benz to push the lead to 4-1 after four complete.
 
GC would take advantage of an error by UC's Alex Dominguez (E3) on a fielder's choice, bringing a run home to cut into the lead again at 4-2 in the top of the fifth. A sacrifice fly in the sixth would also bring in another Tiger run in the sixth to make it 4-3 Patriots, but UC would respond again in the sixth. After reaching on an E1, Bryan Benz would steal second, putting him in scoring position with no one down. After recording back-to-back outs, Prado would come up big again, this time with another RBI single to bring in Benz and extend the lead back to 5-3.
 
After six strong innings of work, Avila would be pulled as Anthony Martinez would come in to pitch. Unfortunately, Martinez didn't have his best stuff on Saturday as he allowed two runs on three hits and a walk as the Tigers would tie the game at 5-5 and have runners on the corners with two down. Garrett Vathroder came in to close out the inning as the game would remain tied at 5-5.
 
Still 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth, J.C. Santos would lead off the inning with his first and only hit of the game, a single up the middle, to put the go-ahead run on. A wild throw by GC's relief pitcher Breion Barron (E1), their third error of the game, would sail well into right field, Santos would come all the way around to score and allowed Spata to reach third, giving UC a 6-5 lead. The Pats couldn't extend the lead any further, giving Vathroder a chance at the win in the ninth. He would come out and take care of business, sitting the Tigers down 1-2-3 to end the game, giving UC the 6-5 win.
 
Vathroder would get the win in relief going 2.1 innings allowing no runs on just one hit and no walks sitting three down on strikes. In the no-decision, Avila went six strong allowing three runs (two earned) on a pair of walks and six hits while fanning seven on strikes.
 
Game two's start was in the hands of Zach Hurley who had a dominating performance on the day. After two quiet innings, UC would use small ball to get to the Tigers in the third. A RBI single by Prado would give Cumberlands their first run of the inning. That was followed by a RBI single by Raudy Martinez and a RBI double by Alex Dominguez, giving UC a 3-0 advantage. That score would hold until the sixth when the Patriot offense would explode.
 
Back-to-back singles by Diaz and Andrew Ramos would lead off the sixth. Benz would follow with an infield single to load the bases for Santos. With a 1-1 count, Santos would send a fastball deep over the left-center field fence for a grand slam, his fifth home run on the year, to make it 7-0 Patriots. Spata would follow with a single to chase another Tiger reliever from the game. After new pitcher Michael Koltak would retire both Prado and Arellano to put two away, Raudy Martinez would come to the plate. After getting ahead 0-2 on Martinez, Koltak would challenge Martinez with a fastball inside and Raudy would make him pay, sending the ball deep over the fence in left for his ninth home run of the season, giving UC a 9-0 lead.
 
After getting into a jam in the seventh by walking the first two batters of the inning, Hurley would settle down, inducing an infield fly before a game-ending 6-4-3 double play to push the Patriots past Georgetown with the complete game shutout win.
 
Hurley would get his sixth win of the season after throwing seven innings of work allowing no runs on four hits and four walks while striking out six.
 
The Patriots are scheduled to return on Doyle Buhl Stadium on Monday, April 2^nd for the third and final game of the three-game set against Georgetown College. First pitch is scheduled for 4 pm weather permitting.
 
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