April 2, 2005

Rams sweep pair of games from rival Spring Hill

Story Contributed by Spring Hill College Sports Information Contact: Adam Prendergast

MOBILE, Ala. -- The University of Mobile baseball team swept a pair of Gulf Coast Athletic Conference games Saturday afternoon over Spring Hill College following an Eddie Davila two-out, two-strike, two-run homerun in the top of the seventh to give the Rams the victory in game two.  The Rams (26-12, 12-5 GCAC) won the first game 16-3 in five innings and took game two 13-12. The Badgers (10-26, 1-16) rallied from eight runs down in the second game to take a 12-11 lead, but Davila ended the game in dramatic fashion.

Sims, who is in his 20th season at the helm of the Badgers, was seeking his 600th career win this afternoon.

Mobile stormed out to a 10-2 lead in the second game with eight runs in the second inning and two more in the fourth; the Badgers committed three errors in the eight-run second inning. Lance Howard did the most damage for the Rams with a three RBI double to left-center. Spring Hill had scored one run in the first on an Evan Lee RBI single and one run in the third on an RBI groundout by Banks Walker.

The Badgers started their comeback with six runs in their half of the fourth inning. Neil Favre got things underway with an RBI single scoring Grant Allenbach. Following a pitching change, Matt Rozelle doubled to right field to score Favre. Josh Coleman then reached on an error by the Rams third baseman scoring Josh Bohannon from third. Lee then had another RBI single followed by a sacrifice fly by Jeremy Koen.

Spring Hill then took the lead with three runs in the bottom of the fifth when Coleman singled to centerfield with runners on first and second. The ball squeezed between the legs of the centerfielder and the error allowed both base runners and Coleman to score. Mobile tied the game at 11-11 in the top of the sixth with a sacrifice fly from Daniel Harper to score Justin Rosen; the run was unearned after Rosen moved to second on a passed ball. The Badgers regained the lead in their half of the frame when Koen hit his second homerun of the game over the leftfield wall. The Badgers had Mobile down to their final strike of the ballgame before Davila hit his homerun to leftfield.

A total of eight pitchers played for both teams with Chris Copland (6-1) taking the win for the Rams and Jason Larkin (1-4) suffering the loss for the Badgers. Copland threw the final 2 2/3 innings for Mobile allowing two runs, one earned run while scattering four hits. Larkin threw just one inning allowing two runs on three hits. Darin Gilcrease, the Badgers starter, allowed just three earned runs though 10 were scored under his watch.

The Rams scored 13 runs over the final two innings of game one to take the 16-3 victory. Carlos Santana led Mobile going 3-for-4 from the plate with two RBI, while Davila went 2-for-3 with three RBI. Mobile grabbed a 3-0 lead with one run in each of the first three innings. The Badgers closed the gap to 3-2 with Koen's first homerun of the day. Mobile scored five runs in the fourth and eight runs in the fifth to end the game by the mercy run. Spring Hill scored their other run of the game on an RBI single off the bat of Coleman.

Simon Badeaux (9-2) pitched a complete game for Mobile earning the win. He scattered five hits and all three runs were earned and he walked five batters. Spring Hill started Mario Garcia (2-3) suffered the loss allowing eight runs, seven earned on nine hits in 3 1/3 innings of work. John Bonner pitched 2/3 of an inning allowing one hit and no runs, while Ben Collins allowed eight runs, seven earned on three hits in zero innings. Kelly Payne pitched the final inning for Spring Hill not allowing any runs on one hit.

The two team wrap up the three-game series tomorrow afternoon with a single nine-inning game beginning at 2:00 pm at Stan Galle Field.

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