Bowling Green, KY – A complete game showing from Colton Easterwood coupled with an offensive onslaught from Jose Rojas and Pedro Nazario highlighted UC Baseball's 7-1 victory over the Phoenix of Cumberland University in Thursday night's Mid-South Conference Quarterfinal matchup. The win improves the Patriots to 44-6 overall and send UC to the MSC Semifinals on Friday.  
 
Both teams would go down 1-2-3 in the first, but Cumberlands would lead off the second with a pair of singles from Bryan Leef and Jose Rojas. Unfortunately, three straight outs would strand the pair on. After retiring nine straight batters, Easterwood got the offensive support he needed. After reaching first on an error to lead off the inning, Kevin Rolon would steal second with one down. A single from Orley Arellano would put runners on the corners bringing up Raudy Martinez. After drawing a walk to load the bags, Leef would hit a sacrifice fly to center to bring home the first run of the game, scoring Rolon to make it 1-0 Pats. A two-out double to center followed from Rojas, scoring Arellano from second, but a wild throw to third would find its way into the dugout, bringing Martinez all the way around to score and sending Rojas to third, extending UC's lead to 3-0 after three.
 
In the fourth, Nazario would lead off the inning with a double to left-center. With one down, Rolon sent a single back up the middle to bring Nazario around third to score, pushing the lead to 4-0 Patriots. With two down in the fifth, Rojas would continue to have a fantastic day at the plate as he would smack a 0-2 pitch over the right field fence, his fourth home run of the season, to make it a 5-0 lead for Cumberlands. Another solo home run would come in the sixth as Nazario would hit his own 1-2 pitch over the left field fence, his sixth of the season, to push the lead to 6-0.
 
The Phoenix would find their way unto the scoreboard in the seventh on a fielder's choice, bringing in their lone run of the contest to cut the lead to 6-1. UC would get their run back though in the bottom of the frame on a fielder's choice of their own, this one off the bat of Nazario to bring home Leef to make it 7-1 Patriots. Easterwood would finish out the game strong to give Cumberlands the victory to move on in the winner's bracket.
 
Easterwood's complete game win moves him to 4-1 on the season. He tallied nine innings allowing just one earned run on five hits and a walk while sitting down six on strikes. The loss would go to the Phoenix's Polo Portelo who went 5.1 innings allowing six runs (three earned) on nine hits and a walk while striking out three.
 
UC now advances to the MSC Semifinals as they will take on three seed Campbellsville University on Friday, May 3^rd at 2 pm central time at Bowling Green Park. Live video and stats are available here.
 
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