The Dallas Baptist University Patriot baseball team defeated the University of Portland by the score of 23-8 on Tuesday afternoon at Patriot Field. DBU won three of the four games in the series, improving to 3-1 on the year. The Pilots fall to 1-2 on the season.
Freshman Jordan Meaker, making his first collegiate start on the mound, pitched six innings, allowing on two runs on four hits and striking out four. Senior Drew Holder led DBU at the plate, finishing the day going four for six with seven RBI.
Portland used a two-run homerun in the top of the first to take an early 2-0 lead.
DBU scored seven runs in the bottom of the third inning. Freshman Will Stramp and Senior Israel Victor led off the inning with singles and Freshman Brandon Bantz added a RBI single. Sophomore Austin Krum was hit by a pitch, loading the bases for Senior Jeremy Goldschmeding, who added a RBI single, followed by Senior Cody Montgomery, who also had a RBI single. Senior Drew Holder hit a two RBI double and Senior Damian Gomez had a RBI groundout. Junior Matt Tucker added a RBI single to push the score to 7-2.
The Patriots pushed across three more runs in the fourth, after Krum and Goldschmeding each had infield singles, setting up a RBI double by Holder and a two RBI single by Gomez, making the score 10-2.
In the fifth, Victor singled, Bantz walked and Krum was hit by a pitch. Goldschmeding added a RBI single and Montgomery had a sacrifice fly, scoring Bantz leaving the score 12-2.
DBU added seven runs in the sixth inning on three hit batters and four hits, one of which was a grand slam by Holder, increasing the lead to 19-2.
The Pilots added a grand slam in the top of the seventh inning and one run in the eighth and ninth innings to close the margin to 19-8. Freshman Evan Bigley added a grand slam in the bottom of the eighth inning to push the final score to 23-8.
The Patriots resume action this weekend when they travel to Huntsville, Texas to take part in the Sam Houston State Invitational. DBU will play Sam Houston on Thursday evening at 7:00, Southern Illinois on Friday at 3:00 and Texas A&M - Corpus Christi at 3:00 on Saturday.
