JACKSON, Miss-- The University of Mobile baseball team split a SSAC West twin bill with 12th-ranked Belhaven University Saturday, taking the opener 5-4 and falling in the finale 7-5. Both contests were 7 innings.
Mobile (19-10, 3-3) steps out of conference play to visit Concordia College-Selma for a pair of games Wednesday, Mar. 23 at 1 pm.
Josh Blaylock picked up the complete-game victory in the opener in his first start of the season. The junior scattered 9 hits over 7 innings, while striking out 4 and allowing 3 earned runs.
The Mobile offense capitalized on 5 Belhaven errors to overcome a 4-0 deficit after 2 and score 5 runs on only 5 hits. Jeremy Williams went 2-4 with a homer and 2 runs scored for Mobile, while Lake Eiland and Paul Moreno went 2-4 for Belhaven.
In that 2nd inning, the Blazers plated 4 runs on 3 hits after starting the frame with a single, triple, sac fly, walk and double. After Blaylock kept Belhaven scoreless in the 3rd, Mobile put up a 4-run 4th inning, behind 2 hits and 3 errors. After a quick out, two of the next three hitters reached via error and all 3 errors in the inning plated runs.
Mobile then scored the winning run in the 5th on a home run from Williams. Blaylock was able to work in and out of trouble the rest of the way, stranding 5 Blazers over the final 3 innings.
In the finale, Belhaven scored in all six innings that they came to bat and produced 12 hits off of the Mobile pitching staff.
Corey Fountain took the loss after giving up 2 runs on 3 hits in 1.2 innings of relief. Mobile had to use four pitchers after using only two in Friday's 15-inning affair. Mark Husband grabbed the win for the Blazers with 1.1 innings of shutout relief.
Ryan Waltman finished 2-3 at the plate for Mobile, while Justin Beck went 1-2 with 2 RBI and 1 run scored. For Belhaven, Tyler Wrinkle finished 3-5 with 3 runs scored, Anthony Doss went 2-3 and Lake Eiland finished 2-4 with 2 RBI.
The Belhaven bats were lively early and they built a 4-0 lead after 3 innings. The scoring started after Jacob Knowles fanned the first two Blazer batters in the 1st, but the next five hitters reached to force home a pair of runs.
Mobile, meanwhile, put four runners on in the first 3 innings and could not do anything until they plated 5 in the 4th. Cody Barber and Brady King started the scoring with RBI-singles, while Beck produced a 2-run triple two batters later. The Blazers tied it up with a single tally in the 4th and then scored the winning run in the 5th, when they went single-single-HBP-walk with two outs to force home the decisive run.