LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The University of North Alabama baseball team evened the series on Saturday against Bellarmine 7-4 at Knights Field in Louisville, Kentucky.
North Alabama (12-14, 5-3 ASUN) had 10 hits for the 11th time this season, moving to 8-3 in those games. The Lions mashed three home-runs for their 11th multi-home run game of the season.
UNA has hit at least one home run in six of the eight conference games played — the team is 5-1 when doing so.
Bellarmine (9-16, 3-5 ASUN) hung two on Tripp Patterson to open the first inning. After that, the sophomore pitched six scoreless innings while throwing 116 pitches in 7.0 innings pitched and added six strikeouts.
This is Patterson's second seven inning outing this season, the other coming against Eastern Kentucky last Saturday. This is back-to-back wins for the Alexandria, Ala. native.
Tyler Rice provided relief in the eighth inning before Sawyer Toney earned the save in the ninth to close the game.
The trio and Lion defense limited the Knights to nine hits on the afternoon. This moved Bellarmine to 2-11 on the season when being held to less than 10 hits.
North Alabama recorded 10 or more hits for the 11th time this season and is now 8-3 in those games.
Eight of the nine starting Lion batters secured a hit with Jackson Westmoreland and Leighton Jenkins leading the way at two each.
The two hits from Westmoreland secured his 11th straight game with a hit, the longest active streak on the team.
Nash Rippen extended his on-base streak to 23 games thanks to a single, while Will Millard's streak extends to 21 games with his home run.
Millard was one of three batters to homer; Dylan Coleman and Wes Walker adding the other two. Coleman is second on the team with seven, while Millard and Walker are tied for third with five each for the season.
North Alabama now stands in sole possession of first place for home runs in the Atlantic Sun conference with 36 this season — Bellarmine is second with 33.
Bellarmine awoke with the same mission from yesterday on their mind. The first batter of the day singled as the next Knight homered over left field for the quick 2-0 lead on Patterson.
That is all the sophomore lefty would allow for his tenure on Saturday; he retired the next two batters after the home run.
After the opening frame lead for the Knights, North Alabama responded in the top of the third.
Loving began things with a full count walk. Jenkings then doubled down the left field line to put two Lions in scoring position.
A wild pitch took the lid off the scoreboard as Loving crossed. Petey Craska sent one out of play to right field which went down as a sacrifice fly to even the score, 2-2.
After a clean inning in the bottom of the third, the Lions returned again with some runs.
Rippen extended his streak thanks to a single down the right field line in the fourth. Millard homered in the next at-bat to add two more to the board, 4-2.
Santoyo and Loving walked as Westmoreland continues his hitting streak with a single to left center. The single was enough to move Santoyo all the way across for a three-run inning.
Patterson continued to deal with his fourth strikeout in as many innings — another clean inning in the bottom of the fourth for UNA.
A bang opened the fifth inning as Coleman homered to right center in a 2-2 count. This was Coleman's first home run since the Ole Miss game on March 4 — his seventh on the year.
His solo shot pushed the lead to four, 6-2.
The Knights tried to mount their horses in the final Patterson inning in the seventh.
The first batter flied out before the next singled; another fly out ensued to Loving in centerfield.
The fourth Knight doubled into left center, however Rippen hit the cut-off man Jenkins. The shortstop sent the throw home where Millard applied the tag to end the inning.
Rice took the reigns from Patterson in the eighth where the first made his way to third after being hit in his at-bat with a couple of wild pitches. A single scored the lead runner while an error helped another Knight touch home to cut the lead, 6-4.
A two-run lead in the top of the ninth saw two Lions go down in the first two at-bats.
The third batter, Walker, took the fourth pitch over the left-field wall for the third homer of the day. He home run gave the Lions an extra run to create the 7-4 gap.
Toney entered to close out the Saturday contest.
The first Knight singled. Toney struck out the next batter in three pitches.
The defense cleaned it up behind him with a pop out to Jenkins at short and the ground out to Santoyo for the Lions' 12th win of the season.
Pitchers of Record
W – Tripp Patterson (2-3)
L – Connor Sims (0-2)
S – Sawyer Toney (1)
COMING UP NEXT
North Alabama will look to take the series at 12 p.m. tomorrow.
For more information on North Alabama Athletics, visit www.roarlions.com and follow UNA Athletics on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
