HIGH POINT, N.C. – Behind a 16-run stretch in the game's final two innings, the Brevard College baseball team (7-4) claimed a 20-2 victory in the series finale against Greensboro College (2-1) on Sunday afternoon at Truist Point in High Point, North Carolina.
Brevard, who exploded offensively in the latter stages of the contest, scored the second-most runs in single-game NCAA-era history (21 at Lincoln Memorial, March 31, 2012) and tied the program high for single-game hits (22 vs. Carson-Newman, March 26, 2010).
Jason Jucker tallied a 4-for-6 day at the plate with four RBI and two runs scored, adding a double to his ledger, while Blake Burchett logged a career-high four-hit performance with three runs scored, two RBI, and a triple – as seven Tornados tallied multi-hit performances in the blowout win.
Zach Allison scored a team-high four runs in a 2-for-3 outing at the plate while also tallying a pair of RBI. Logan Clark went 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI, while freshman Cale Oehler had a career performance with three hits including a double, two runs scored, and three RBI. Jack Atkinson and Ryan Leiman logged two hits apiece, while Christian Ezzell and Frankie Vasquez also had base knocks.
Bryce Bowers (2-0) was BC's starter and earned his second win of the season in a career performance for the senior right-handed pitcher from Madisonville, Tennessee. Bowers lasted a career-long eight innings, allowing just two earned runs while striking out five Pride batters, which matched his career-high set last season against Greensboro (March 24). Aiden Petty worked a scoreless ninth inning for Brevard with a strikeout.
Burchett kicked things off with a triple in the top of the first that scored Allison to make it a 1-0 ballgame. Jucker continued the positive Tornado momentum in the top of the third with a double that plated Allison, as BC held a 2-0 lead through three frames.
Bowers maintained the shutout before Clark singled home Allison and Burchett, giving the Tornados a 4-0 lead through five innings. Greensboro was able to scratch across runs in both the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings, tightening things up, 4-2.
BC turned things up a notch, sending a total of 12 batters to the plate in an inning which Brevard scored seven runs on eight hits. The rally began as Jucker led the frame off with a single followed by a Clark walk and Vasquez single, loading the bases up with no outs. Oehler delivered on the next at bat, singling down the left-field line to score a pair of Tornado runs and give BC insurance, 6-2.
However, the scoring didn't stop there. After Leiman singled to load the bases back up, an error brought home Vasquez before Atkinson's RBI single scored Oehler. Allison then came up and hit a two-RBI single that was followed by Jucker's RBI-single, giving Brevard a commanding 11-2 advantage.
Bowers forced a double play before striking out the final batter that he faced to put an exclamation point on his impressive individual start.
BC followed its seven-run eighth up with an even more impressive nine-run ninth inning to clinch the getaway game of the three-game series. Atkinson drove in his second run of the contest with an RBI single, followed by a Burchett RBI single. Jucker collected a two-RBI single before Burchett came across on a wild pitch. Clark then singled home Jucker to make it a 18-2 affair, as Ezzell tallied an RBI single and Payden Crews put a ball in play that was mishandled, allowing Leiman to score Brevard's 20th run of the afternoon. Petty shut the door on the Pride in the bottom of the ninth to seal the impressive win for the Tornados.
Brevard returns to action at home for a three-game non-conference series against Averett Univerisity, scheduled to begin with a doubleheader on Saturday, March 5 at 12 and 3 p.m. at Gil Coan Field.
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-BC-