THE RUNDOWN
A pitching duel turned into a runaway victory for No. 17 DBU on Saturday as the Patriots (33-10, 17-3) knocked off the Rice Owls (17-25, 7-13), 10-3. DBU entered the eighth inning down, 2-1, but erupted for eight runs thanks in part to a George Specht grand slam.
 
The Patriots stole a run in the second inning. They drew three consecutive walks before Alex Pendergast reached on an error, allowing Tom Poole to score from third.
 
Rice matched the run in the bottom of the frame with a leadoff home run by Jack Reidel.
 
The Owls' starting pitcher, JD McCracken, kept DBU quiet for the remainder of his outing while Reidel hit his second leadoff homer of the game in the fourth for a 2-1 Rice lead.
 
Zeros lit up the scoreboard for the next three innings. Braxton Bragg earned a quality start for the Patriots, throwing 7.0 innings of two-run baseball with seven strikeouts and only one walk, and McCracken and his reliever, Matthew Linskey combined for 10 punchouts and gave up only one run on two hits.
 
In the eighth, the floodgates opened slowly but surely for the DBU bats. Two walks, a sacrifice bunt, and an intentional walk loaded the bases for Tom Poole, who watched ball four in the dirt to even the score at two runs apiece.
 
Pinch hitting for Pendergast, Noah Boughton punched a groundball past the second baseman to sway the game in favor of the Patriots, 3-2.
 
George Specht stepped up to the plate with a man occupying each station and became the fourth straight Patriot to reach base when he smashed a fly ball over the center field wall for a grand slam.
 
Nathan Humphreys drove in the last two runs of an eight-run eighth for DBU with a two-run shot.
 
The Owls looked to mount a comeback, starting with a two-out home run by Christian Salazar in the bottom of the eighth, but even that tally was matched by the Patriots in the ninth, finishing a two-win day for DBU.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Saturday's two wins means the Patriots have won all seven of their Conference USA series thus far.
- George Specht's grand slam was the second of his career.
- The DBU offense's 10 walks drawn is their second-most in a game this season.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
7 - For the sixth time this season, Braxton Bragg recorded at least seven strikeouts.
8 - The Patriots' eight runs in the eighth inning are a season high for runs scored in a single frame.
8 - DBU has homered in eight consecutive games.
 
HEAD COACH DAN HEEFNER ON HIS TEAM'S PERFORMANCE ON SATURDAY
"I thought we eally showed some great perseverance in the first game to be able to come back in that ninth inning, go into extra innings, and I thought we pitched it really well, played good defense, quality at-bats, and then were able to break through in the end. Same thing in the second game… where it was a really good game going all the way through. Their starter was tough,…he was effectively wild, didn't give us a whole lot of stuff to hit. Then to break through at the end of the game, I think, showed a lot of resilience on our guys' part.
 
UP NEXT
The series finale between DBU and Rice is tomorrow at 1:00 pm.
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