The baseball program at Shawnee State engaged in two tight, hard-fought battles against the Georgetown Tigers' baseball program, with Jacob Kline and Levi Jones homering to head up a late Shawnee State rally in Saturday's opener before a second late-inning comeback fell just shy in the final game of the series between the pair. The Bears defeated the Tigers by a 6-5 count in Game 1 before dropping the second bout by a 6-4 margin.
Shawnee State (19-19, 8-12 Mid-South Conference) ended a six-game winning streak for Georgetown (27-15, 11-7 Mid-South Conference) with its win in Saturday's first affair. The Bears proved to be a tough out all afternoon, belting five extra base hits and drawing six walks between the two contests.
Game 1
Jones, Kline, Rodriguez deliver late
Down by a 1-0 count in the opener of the first affair, Jacob Kline, Levi Jones and Howie Rodriguez proved to make all the difference late in Shawnee State's 6-5 win to open up Saturday's play.
Having posted just one hit up to the start of the seventh inning of play, Shawnee State changed that in a hurry. While rain started to fall across the Branch Rickey Park grounds, the once-cooled SSU bats heated up in a big way as following a leadoff walk by Danny McGuire, Kline's two-run homer to left on the opening pitch of his at-bat gave the Bears a 2-1 lead.
Not to be outdone, Rodriguez followed Kline's big fly with a loud double to right field. This set the table for Jones, who capped off the four-run seventh with the inning's second two-run homer -- a shot to deep right center field -- to put Shawnee State ahead by a 4-1 cushion.
Back up in the bottom of the eighth following their outstanding work at the plate in the seventh, Kline's two-out infield single was followed by a RBI double into the right center field gap by Rodriguez. Jones then capped off the scoring by notching a RBI single that plated Rodriguez as the trio ended the scoring the same way they began it -- with a flurry.
In the opening contest, the trio combined to go 6-for-12 with two doubles, two home runs, six RBI and five runs scored in helping produce essentially every bit of the necessary punch needed for Shawnee State to win Saturday's opener.
Gleason, Goodwin add to strong effort
Along with the efforts of the above trio, the play of Jake Gleason and Garrett Goodwin allowed Shawnee State to have an opportunity to claim victory in the opener.
Gleason, who pitched eight strong innings to start the game, only allowed four hits and an earned run through those eight full frames. Georgetown was able to score four ninth-inning runs -- three off of Gleason on a home run by Luke Torino -- but behind Gleason, Goodwin came in and shut the door effectively, needing just 13 pitches to pick up the save.
The Ashland, Ohio native got a two-out punchout on Eric Thrower to end the game effectively, holding the tying run on second base in the process.
In all, Gleason pitched eight-and-a-third innings of solid baseball, striking out eight batters and giving up five hits. Goodwin didn't give up an earned run in his appearance.
Game 2
Kline continues tear, Pluta pitches strong in relief
Continuing his outstanding tear as of late, Shawnee State's Jacob Kline capped off an outstanding week, going 2-for-4 with an RBI in Saturday's final contest after also going 2-for-4 with a home run, two RBI, and two runs scored in the first affair against the Tigers Saturday afternoon.
For the week, Kline went an outstanding 9-for-20 with four home runs, nine RBI and six runs scored. The junior infielder produced the only RBI directly off of a hit in the second inning -- albeit with some clever baserunning by Charles Douglas, who managed to dive under and around an attempted tag on the basepaths to plate the game's first run off of Kline's third-inning base knock.
In pitching relief, Seth Pluta posted a strong outing, throwing two-and-two-thirds innings of two-hit baseball while striking out five batters. The junior's ability to keep runners off the scoreboard allowed Shawnee State to draw within 6-4 as the Bears added three more runs off of a George Duran sacrifice fly, a balk, and a wild pitch, but failed to get any closer in the 6-4 defeat.
With Saturday's split, Shawnee State sits at 19-19 overall. The Bears will look to avenge their two losses at Point Park last Tuesday when Shawnee State takes on the Pioneers (29-9) in a 1 p.m. nonconference bout Monday afternoon at Branch Rickey Park.
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