By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – While the World Series may have come to end last week with a victory by the Kansas City Royals, there's still baseball brewing in Cookeville as the Tennessee Tech baseball team completed Game 4 of the Purple & Gold Series Tuesday evening.
Trailing 2-1 in the best-of-five series, the Purple squad evened things out with a strong performance from last year's Ohio Valley Conference Rookie of the Year, Ryan Flick. The sophomore designated hitter did plenty offensively, blasting two doubles and home run for a 3-for-4 day at the dish.
He gave the Purple Team a quick 2-0 advantage in the pivotal contest, ripping a two-run double down the left field line. Four innings later, after the Gold Team had tied things up at 3-3, he unloaded on a pitch to send a two-run blast down the left field line for a 5-3 advantage.
The Gold Team nearly mounted a comeback to tie things up in the sixth, using a two-out, bases-loaded walk by Anthony El Chibani to pull within one run. Southpaw Levi Wright forced a pop up to the next batter to escape the inning and utility man Josh Pankratz ended all hope for the Gold squad with a quick, three-up and three-down save.
The rubber match is set for a 4:40 p.m. first pitch Wednesday afternoon.
Photo by Jim Dillon
