Xavier Holds Off Baseball's Ninth Inning Rally

Friday, February 13

Spartanburg, S.C. - Russell C. King Field

1:00 PM

Army West Point

0-1

Xavier

1-0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
Xavier	1	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	5	6	0
Army West Point	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	3	4	7	1

Xavier Holds Off Baseball's Ninth Inning Rally

February 13, 2015 | Baseball

Box Score

Feb. 13, 2015

Box Score

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Army baseball team fell to Xavier by a final of 5-4 in the season opening game for both teams on Friday afternoon at Russell C. King Field. Army trailed 5-1 heading into the ninth inning, before putting together a late rally.

With the bases loaded and the score 5-3, Mark McCants came to the plate with Army down to its final out. McCants came through with a single to right to score David Monge from third base, but Jon Rosoff was gunned down at the dish to preserve the victory for Xavier.

McCants drove in two runs and Alex Robinett started and gave up one run in six innings on the mound in the hard-luck loss.

"Robinett pitched very well today," head coach Matt Reid said. "Offensively, we got things going too late but we battled hard and in the end it came down to the play at the plate. Their starting pitching was effective in keeping us off balance early in the game. We will have to get back to work and learn from our mistakes with two tough opponents tomorrow."

Army threatened in the bottom of the sixth when Harold Earls was on second with one out after his leadoff single up the middle. Facing Zac Lowther in his first inning of relief, Jacob Page struck out swinging and Earls was caught stealing to end the inning.

Lowther came on in support of Brad Kirschner, who twirled five innings of scoreless two-hit ball. Kirschner fanned seven and walked two, while surrendering hits to Kris Lindner and Ben Smith. The Xavier left-hander pitched with the lead all afternoon and sent down the Black Knights in order in the third and fifth innings.

Xavier scored a run off Army starter Alex Robinett in the first inning before he settled in and finished six complete innings with four strikeouts. Robinett allowed two hits, both in the first frame, and did not walk a batter as Xavier took the 1-0 lead on Brian Bruening's RBI single with two outs and runners on first and second.

Leading 1-0 heading into the seventh inning, Xavier tacked on a pair of runs against freshman left-hander Jeremy Mortensen. With runners on first and second with one down, Andre Jernigan doubled to the gap in left center, chasing home both runners, to extend the lead to 3-0. Mortensen induced a double play to end the seventh and pitched a scoreless eighth.

Army loaded the bases in the home half of the eighth with walks by Earls and Page, surrounding Alex Jensen's single. McCants then put the Black Knights on the board with a two-out infield single that scored Earls and ended Lowther's outing. Jacob Bodner came on to face Lindner and got him to pop up to shortstop to close the inning.

Lowther pitched 2.2 innings, allowed three hits and walked three, but held Army to one run.

The Musketeers added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the ninth, but Army refused to quit. Smith started the ninth with a walk, and then Ryan Levenhagen delivered a single to put the first two runners on base. Bodner couldn't find his control and hit Monge with a pitch to load the bases. He then issued a walk to Rosoff to make it 5-2, before Earls struck out for the first out. Bodner drilled Jensen with a pitch to pull Army within two runs.

With the bases loaded and one down, Xavier turned to reliever Greg Jacknewitz with Page at the plate. He struck out swinging for the second out before McCants' single nearly tied the game when Rosoff was called out trying to score from second.

Army returns to the diamond on Saturday when it takes on Dayton at 1 p.m. at Russell C. King Field on the campus of Wofford College. The Black Knights then take on USC Upstate at Harley Park at 7:30 p.m.