Despite posting 13 runs on 19 hits, the baseball program at Shawnee State fell in a tight 15-13 setback to Bluefield (Va.) in a road contest that was held at Bowen Field in Bluefield Tuesday afternoon.

Shawnee State, who fell to 14-19 with the setback, got a two-run homer from leadoff hitter Nolan Tressler in the contest, while Eli Jones went 5-for-6 at the plate. Hunter Warner and Luis Mejia also collected three hits apiece, but the Bears couldn't keep the Rams back as Bluefield notched five extra base hits and scored in each inning with the exception of the seventh frame in the win.

After falling behind by a 4-0 margin after the opening inning of play, Shawnee State rallied back with four runs of its own in the top half of the second frame, as a Kyle Eslick free pass and a single by Eli Jones set the table for Tyler Lund to drive home a run on a sacrifice bunt that was mishandled, which allowed Lund to reach base and move into scoring position. An RBI single by Warner and a two-RBI single by Mejia allowed SSU to tie the game at four apiece.

Bluefield responded with three runs in the bottom of the second inning on a solo home run and a two-RBI single to take a 7-4 advantage after two innings complete, but Shawnee State rallied again to tie the score by posting three runs of its own in the top half of the third inning. Again, a walk by Eslick and a single by Jones started the rally for SSU, with a one-out RBI single by Lund and Tressler's two-run homer to right field with two gone in the inning allowing the Bears to knot the game at a seven-all tie.

A two-out RBI single in the third inning and a wild pitch along with an error in the fourth frame gave Bluefield a 10-7 edge, but Shawnee State countered with four huge fifth inning salvos as back-to-back-to-back singles by Jones, Lund and Ryan Scott produced a run while a wild pitch not only allowed SSU to cut the Bluefield lead to a 10-9 margin, but gave Warner an opportunity that the junior cashed in on when the infielder drove two runners in to give Shawnee State an 11-10 lead after the top half of the fifth frame of action.

Bluefield tied the game on a solo home run in the fifth to match the score at 11 all and took the lead on a two-out single to center field to allow the Rams to gave a 12-11 advantage after six innings of work, but in the seventh and eighth innings, SSU countered with a run each in the top half of both frames as Mejia's single was followed by a RBI double to left center by Michael De Jesus to tie the score once again at 12. In the eighth inning, a hit by pitch and a sacrifice bunt by Tressler put Warner in another great position to drive in a run, which the Dayton native cashed in on with his RBI single to center, giving Shawnee State a 13-12 advantage heading into the bottom of the eighth inning.

However, a two-run error along with a two-out RBI single proved to be costly -- as Bluefield took a 15-13 lead on the game's seventh lead change, and held the point as Eslick's and Jones' singles to put the potential winning run at the plate with two out in the ninth inning didn't result in SSU denting the scoreboard.

Additional

For the contest, Jones (5-for-6, run scored), Warner (3-for-5, walk, three RBI, run scored), Mejia (3-for-5, walk, RBI, run scored), Eslick (2-for-4, two walks) and Lund (2-for-5, RBI, three runs scored) all enjoyed multi-hit outings, while Tressler (1-for-3, walk, home run, two RBI, three runs scored), Scott (1-for-4, two runs scored), De Jesus (1-for-6, double, RBI) and Noah Sniadach (1-for-5) all joined the hit column.

Shawnee State gets back to the River States Conference grind with a three-game set against Alice Lloyd (Ky.). First pitch is set for Friday afternoon at 2 p.m.

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