By Mike Lehman, TTU Sports Information
HAMMOND, La. – It was a gut-wrenching loss for the Tennessee Tech baseball team Friday afternoon, as a dominant pitching performance and nearly instant lead could not hold up in a 2-1 loss at Southeastern Louisiana in 10 innings at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
Golden Eagle shortstop Ed Johnson opened the contest with a bang, blasting the second pitch of the day over the wall in left field for his fourth home run of the year. The run would turn out to be Tech's lone marker on the scoreboard on the day, with a fierce, pitchers' duel dominating the day.
For the purple and gold, it was right-handed hurler Peyton Calitri turning in the outing of his career, holding the Lions without a base hit until the eighth inning. Tossing seven and one-third frames of no-hit ball, Caltitri turned to his defense to help keep the bases clear of activity, walking just one batter while the infield turned in numerous outstanding plays.
On the flip side, SLU starter Will Kinzeler turned in a great day on the mound, racking up nine strikeouts while scattering five more Golden Eagles after serving up the leadoff bomb to Johnson in the first. He completed nine innings on the hill, exiting after surrendering a leadoff base hit in the top of the 10th.
Calitri started the ninth inning for the Golden Eagles, eventually walking the pinch-hitting, leadoff batter for Southeastern Louisiana after a nine-pitch at-bat. Brock Myers entered from the bullpen to try and close things for the Tech squad.
The Lions alternated strikeouts and hit-by-pitches over the next four at-bats, loading the bags with two outs. Then, on an 0-1 offering, SLU used a gutsy play to tie the game, stealing home on a pitch that was up in the zone and swung at for the second strike. Myers initiated a fly ball for the final out to take things to extras.
With one out in the bottom of the 10th and a runner on first, the Golden Eagles made a miscue in the outfield that allowed the batter to reach on a single. Myers appeared to roll up an inning-ending double play on a 1-2 offering to SLU's Trey Harrington, with the umpires calling both runners out, including at first with a bang-bang play.
The Lions' Christian Garcia rounded third and slid into home, seemingly despite the end of the frame, but the umpires took to an official review of the play at first base. After a very lengthy review, the crew deemed Harrington just beat the throw to first and ruled Garica safe at the plate.
Tech will square off with Southeastern Louisiana in the second game of the series Saturday afternoon in a 2:00 p.m. CT tilt.
File photo by Jim Dillon