NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- After dropping an early lead and going down 4-1 to Lipscomb, Tennessee Tech showed tenacity at the plate, rallying to a 6-5 win in Nashville over the A-Sun opponent.
Austin Wulf and Chad Oberacker teamed up to give the Golden Eagles their first lead of the game, with Wulf leading off with a double into left center and Oberacker beating out a bunt single to score Wulf and put Tech up, 1-0 in the first.
But it was the Bisons who dominated the second and third innings, scoring two runs in each to put Tech in a 4-1 hole headed into the fourth. They loaded the bases in the second on singles by Tennyson Dodd and Lee Wilson, and a walk to T.J. Hoelzer by Tech's freshman lefty Jake McWhirter. With three-on and two-out, McWhirter gave up back-to-back walks to Ricky Coleman and M.L. Williams to set the score at 2-1 to Lipscomb.
Dodd would go on to notch two more hits on the game to lead the Bisons in hits with a 3-for-5 effort, while Williams and Henry each brought in two RBI with single shots on the day.
In another two-out scenario just one inning later, singles by Brett Teschner and Wilson followed by a double by Kyle Henry yielded another two runs for the Bisons, giving them their largest lead of the game at 4-1.
The Golden Eagles were able to knot the game over the next two innings though, with reliever Nick Price holding the Bisons scoreless until the eighth.
Casanova Donaldson tripled to kick off the fourth inning, and scored on a hit by Chad Hayes to narrow the Bison's lead to two, while Zach Stephens led off the fifth inning with a single for Tech, moving to second on a wild pitch. A walk to Evan Frazier put runners on first and second for Devin Rivers, who's double into left center worked for two RBI, evening the score at four-all headed into the bottom of the frame.
Tech put two more runs on the board, one in each the seventh and the eighth. Donaldson notched his third hit of the game in the seventh, stole second and advanced to third on a sac bunt by Rivers. A fly-out by Hayes sent him across the plate to give Tech the 5-4 lead. The Golden Eagles got an insurance run in the following inning when a two-out single by Oberacker and a triple by Stephens worked to give Tech the 6-4 lead.
Oberacker and Donaldson both displayed 3-for-5 performances at the plate, while Stephens went 2-for-5 with one RBI. Hayes' 2-for-4 showing yielded two RBI on the evening, as did Devin Rivers' single hit of the game.
Price, who earned the win for Tech, gave up just one run – in the bottom of the eighth, to put the score at its final 6-5 – on six hits in 6.1 innings of work. He struck out seven on the evening and improved to 2-1 on the season. Meanwhile, Lipscomb's Dannie Strable was pegged for the loss, putting him at 2-4 on the year. Strable worked for 2.1 innings and have up three runs on five hits, earning two Ks.
With their new 10-16 record, Tech will turn around to play a second mid-week match-up against Alabama A&M on Wednesday, with the first pitch slated for 3:30 p.m. in Huntsville.
