Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 HENDERSON, Tenn. - With one swing of the bat,
Leo Alvarez changed the game for the Freed-Hardeman Lions.
Alvarez hit a three-run walk-off homerun off of Adam Sprague to send the Lions to a thrilling 7-6 come-from-behind victory over conference leader Cumberland (Tenn.) University on Friday night at Carnes Field.
Until Alvarez's clutch homer, the Lions trailed for the entirety of the game. The Bulldogs, who came in two votes short of making the NAIA Top 25 this week, got two runs in the first inning off of Lion ace
Jorge Lorie and tacked on three more in the second on Matt Greener's bases-clearing double with two outs.
But Lorie settled down and held Cumberland in check for his remaining five innings of work, allowing just one more run in the seventh that came as a result of two Freed-Hardeman errors.
The Lions, who had been swinging very hot bats entering the weekend, struggled to get anything going off CU starter Shawn Schaefer. Schaefer, though, didn't help his own cause in the fifth inning, walking a batter and making two errors to allow FHU to cross the plate without getting a hit.
FHU finally got to Schaefer in the eighth inning. Alvarez opened the inning with a walk and was pinch run for by
Blake Taylor.
Willy Hernandez moved
Taylor to second on a groundout, and
Taylor then swiped third base before
Brian Bullard doubled him home. The very next batter,
Michael Clayton, followed with a two-run homerun to pull the Lions within two runs, 6-4.
Schaefer escaped the inning and, after
Javy Gomez (3-2) stranded a runner at third in the top of the ninth, was relieved by Sprague to attempt to close the game.
Johanny Ramirez and
Noslen Labrada hit back-to-back singles to start the inning and moved ahead one base each on a wild pitch.
The Lions tried a bit of trickery with speedster
Greg Allen at the plate as Allen tried to catch Cumberland off-guard with a bunt, but the Bulldogs were able to both get Allen out at first and hold the runners.
Alvarez then drove a 1-2 pitch over the left-center field wall to cap off the comeback win for FHU.
Freed-Hardeman improves to 31-13 on the season and 11-6 in the conference. The series concludes with a double-header tomorrow beginning at 12:00 noon.
