The Patriots defeated St. Johns University 10-9, Saturday afternoon in a four and half hour marathon game. DBU, who played and lost to TCU in a 12 inning game this past week, was determined not to let this game slip away and in the 14th inning scored the go ahead run off of a two out double by Freshman Austin Knight.
DBU improved their overall record to 4-2 with the win, while St. Johns fell to 0-1 on the season. Today's game saw a total of 11 pitchers see action, had a combine 30 hits, and 19 runs scored.
The Red Storm jumped out to an early 5-0 lead when they scored all five runs in the bottom of the first inning off of four hits, including two homeruns. DBU answered back in the top of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings scoring a total of seven runs off of eight hits and two St. Johns errors.
St. Johns added one more run in the bottom of the third to bring the score to 7-6 in favor of DBU. After a scoreless seventh inning, DBU padded their lead to 8-6 with six outs to play. St. Johns determined not to give up managed to score a run in the bottom of the eighth and ninth to tie the score and force extra innings.
The Patriots brought in Freshman standout Victor Black in the bottom of the eighth to finish out the inning and try to close it out in the ninth. Black, who was unable to shut the Red Storm down in the ninth, went on to pitch 6.2 innings, allowing only two hits, one run, and had one strikeout to pick up his first win of the season.
The Red Storm threw seven different pitchers at DBU, with Justin Gutsie having the most luck, pitching five scoreless innings and striking out eight Patriots. However, St. Johns decided not stay with Gutsie in the top of the 14th and went with B.J. Martin, who allowed one hit and walked two to pick up the loss for St. Johns.
All nine starters for DBU had at least one hit with six players having two or more hits. Leading the way for the Patriots was Knight, who went three for six, with two runs scored, and two RBI, including the game winning RBI. Sophomore Trevor Head continued to hit the ball well with a two for six night, including a solo homerun.
The Patriots will look to pick up their fifth win of the season when they travel to Houston, Texas, on February 20 to take on Rice University at 4:00.
