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Baseball Drops High-Scoring Affair to Bryan (Tenn.), 13-11

Baseball Drops High-Scoring Affair to Bryan (Tenn.), 13-11
Box Score

Team Stats

May 6, 2021

By Mike DeVader, Reinhardt Director of Athletic Communications & Media

KINGSPORT, Tenn. – It was an offensive display in the quarterfinal round of the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Championship on Thursday night, as Bryan (Tenn.) and Reinhardt combined for 32 hits and 24 runs in Kingsport.

The Lions bested the Eagles, 13-11, to advance to the AAC Championship Semifinals tomorrow.

"Difficult loss and very difficult to put into words," head coach Jonathan Burton said. "We have a big uphill climb. Bryan swung the bats as well as I have seen them this year and we battled back as well as we have all season, but we just couldn't come through in some big moments late; both on the mound and at the plate."

The hometown club (32-18) watched as Bryan homered three times in the first four batters to start the game. Reinhardt responded with two runs of its own in the bottom of the first thanks to a 2-RBI single from Albert Mora.

The Lions stretched their lead even more in the second and third frames – five combined runs for an 8-2 advantage – before the Eagles began to claw back in the bottom of the third with a trio of runs on a sacrifice fly, a single and an error. Now, 8-5, the opposition clapped back with three tallies on a 2-RBI single and a double for an 11-5 cushion after the top of the fifth.

Reinhardt continued to fight back with one in the bottom of the fifth (Keven Jimenez SAC fly) and three more in the sixth (Gianmarco Marcelletti blast and Jimenez 2-RBI single) to pull within 11-9 heading to the seventh.

The Lions got back on the board to improve to 12-9 with a SAC fly of their own, but the hometown squad got two more in the bottom of the seventh (12-11) on a Jarrett Burney 2-RBI single up the middle. The chances to score would continue in the eighth, but this time, however, the Eagles couldn't come through – leaving two runners in scoring position with just one out.

A big insurance run would go the way of Bryan in the ninth on an RBI-double, which helped the group gain momentum once again and shut down the bats in the bottom of the ninth to end the game.

Of the team's 14 hits, five Eagles claimed a pair of knocks each.

Jimenez led the way with four RBIs in the defeat.

A rematch with St. Andrews (N.C.) is on tap tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. in an elimination contest.

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