Yellow Jackets sweep Saturday’s action to earn series split at Alice Lloyd

PIPPA PASSES, Ky. – The Defiance Yellow Jackets split their weekend series against the Alice Lloyd Eagles after losing decisions of 18-16 and 6-3 on Friday. On Saturday, the Jackets bounced back to sweep first doubleheader of the season with wins of 7-6 and 15-7.

The Yellow Jackets (5-14) stacked their first consecutive wins of the season and have now won 3 of 5. This weekend's series saw Defiance score 41 runs, the team's biggest offensive output in a series so far this year. The Jackets slugged 8 home runs and compiled 18 total extra-base hits.

Logan Rosenberger had a brilliant series by going 7-for-17 with 7 RBIs, starting by setting the program record with four doubles during the series opener while delivering 6 RBIs. In the third game of the series, Rosenberger pitched the Jackets to victory in a tight 7-6 ballgame in which he also delivered an RBI single. Bradyn Shaw came one run short of tying the single-game program record when he scored 5 runs in the high-scoring loss to start the weekend. Shaw came back with a big hit in Saturday's series finale when he smashed a grand slam in the fifth that opened up the ballgame. He completed the weekend 6-for-15 with 7 RBIs and 2 homers. Kolbe VanderLeest slugged a homer on Friday afternoon, marking his second straight series with a deep shot. Defiance also saw multiple hitters slug their first college home runs during the visit to Fred Mullinax Athletic Field: Dominic Jarjis, Brady Fallon, Hayden Kanagy, and Shaw. Kanagy and Connor Gephart each collected 7 RBIs over the weekend to join Shaw and Rosenberger for the team lead for the trip to Kentucky.

Game 1 - Alice Lloyd 18, Defiance 16 (8 innings)
The first ballgame was a wild slugfest that lasted well over three hours. Defiance hit the Eagles pitching early and often, building up a 10-3 lead through their first three turns at the plate. After the Eagles got two back in the bottom of the third, DC posted 4 more runs in the fifth frame to lead 14-5. However, Alice Lloyd struck for 7 runs in the bottom of the inning to get back in the game and scored once more in the sixth to climb all the way back within 1 run. The Jackets added two runs to their lead in the seventh with a homer by Bradyn Shaw and a Jayden Stechschulte RBI knock, but a pair of Alice Lloyd homers in the home half of the seventh evened the score at 16-16 to send the game into extra innings. Defiance was held off the board in the top of the eighth and the Eagles answered with a walk-off, two-run homer to win the series opener. Alice Lloyd hit 5 home runs in the contest. DC smacked 2 homers of their own and tallied 8 extra-base hits among their season-high 16 base hits.

Game 2 - Alice Lloyd 6, Defiance 3
Pitching settled in during the second contest aside from a 4-run second by the Alice Lloyd offense. Starting pitcher Bradyn Shaw was squeezed on four total walked issued before giving way to Gabriel Kelly, who finished the contest without allowed another run. DC clung to just one run until their last at bat, an RBI single by Shaw. Jack Brubaker-Flood uncorked his second homer of the spring with a two-run shot to center, but that's where the DC rally fizzled out.

Game 3 - Defiance 7, Alice Lloyd 6
Defiance rebounded from a tough Friday at the ballpark to start the second day with a win. Defiance posted a 5-run first inning highlighted by a two-run double from Connor Gephart and Dominic Jarjis smoking his first college home run. After the Eagles got a run back in the third, Caleb Wurster slugged a solo blast, his second of the campaign. Alice Lloyd continued to claw back with a 3-run homer in the fourth and a 2-run fifth to tie the game at 6-6. However, Defiance responded with freshman first baseman Brady Fallon's first college dinger that proved to be the game-winner.

Game 4 - Defiance 15, Alice Lloyd 7
The Yellow Jackets swept the action on Saturday with an emphatic victory fueled by a 9-run fifth. Leading 4-2 through the first four frames, Hayden Kanagy and Bradyn Shaw each cleared the bases with homers in the big fifth inning. Kanagy unloaded on a 3-run blast to start the scoring as part of a 6-RBI performance while Shaw capped off the inning with a grand slam to put DC ahead 13-2. Kanagy struck for his third RBI knock of the game on a 2-run single in the seventh. Blake Bowman picked up the win on the hill after holding the Eagles to 4 runs in 4.1 innings, followed by Joseph O'Neil who took the Jackets the rest of the way.

UP NEXT
The Yellow Jackets travel to Greenville, S.C. to wrap up their non-conference swing to start the season with a brief two-game series at Bob Jones University on Tuesday. The Yellow Jackets and Bears will play a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.

-JACKETS-