Tough Eighth Inning Takes Toll on Eagles

David Finney | photo by Holly Heath

Lakeland, FL - In game three of the three days series with Southeastern University in Central Florida, the Eagles were looking to putting together a complete game and take one in the series. Thursday's game was one where Reinhardt dominated a majority of the game, but had one bad inning where they gave up five runs and lost their lead. In game two, the Eagles struggled to get base runners across the plate so in Saturday's matchup - the Eagles wanted to get a good start and sustain that throughout the game.

Jordan Hampton would get the starting job for the Eagles and he had a great day on the mound. He pitched 4.1 innings, struck out 5, and allowed 2 runs on 5 hits. The Eagles were able to get on the board first on a single by Albert Mora who scored Xavier Arnette who drew a walk previously. This put Reinhardt up 1-0 after the second inning.

In the fifth, the Eagles would strike again starting off with a double from Jacob Profit. Patrick Baggett would follow this with a single to left-center scoring Profit, 2-0 Eagles. The Fire of Southeastern would get two runs back in the bottom of the fifth and we were all tied again, 2-2. Parker Miller came in to relieve Hampton in the bottom of the fifth and got a one-two-three scoreless inning in the sixth.

The Eagles would get another run across the plate in the top of the seventh on a leadoff homer to centerfield by Patrick Baggett. That was Bagget's second home run of the year and he is batting a hot .542% average.  Miller was able to get two strikeouts and a flyout to center in the bottom of the seventh as the Eagles were back in the lead 3-2.

Everything was looking great for the Eagles at this point and you could see them locking down the next two innings and taking one from Southeastern on their home turf, however, that was not to be the case. The Eagles were held scoreless in the top of the eighth but did get a baserunner on after William Underwood was hit by a pitch, but he would get caught trying to steal second base getting the third out.

In the bottom of the eighth, the floodgates opened and Southeastern was able to show why they are ranked #3 nationally in the NAIA. In similarities to game one, the Eagles gave up eight runs in the inning putting the hopes of getting a win in Florida down.  Reinhardt was held scoreless in the top of the ninth and the game would end 10-3 for the Fire.

Although Reinhardt lost the series, there were good things that happened and experience gained. Coach Burton had this to say about the game and the series, "Tough weekend for our team against a great team but many positives. We had two bad innings that cost us two games, obviously, we need to clean that up against great teams but we learned a lot that should help us build upon moving forward. We are looking forward to another great weekend as we compete at home in the southeast rumble".

The Eagles look to get back in action this Thursday when they will play Faulkner at 5 pm. This is the first game of a three-day weekend of the Southeast Rumble. Eight teams will be participating in the Southeast Rumble including Reinhardtd playing at both Ken White Field and at Lakepoint Sports Complex in Cartersville, GA. It will be an exciting weekend of baseball from teams all over the Eastern United States.