MONTEVALLO, Ala. — The pitcher's duel that was on Friday afternoon quickly turned into an offensive explosion 24 hours later as Montevallo scored 22 unanswered runs to beat Ohio Valley University 22-6.
"Obviously, it didn't start out great for us early," said Montevallo baseball head coach
Chandler Rose. "But we got everyone together during that third inning and told them it was going to take one guy at a time, because one guy wasn't going to win it for us, and we needed to be patient and put guys on base."
After entering its half of the third inning trailing 6-0, Montevallo did just what the 10th-year head coach asked as the first three batters in the inning reached base via walk, hit by pitch and walk, respectively. The Falcons plated their first run with a bases-loaded walk the following at bat, before
Ben Teel launched a grand slam over the left-center field fence to bring UM to within one run.
"Fortunately, I was able to get ahead in the count and got a pitch right down the middle and I was just able to put a good swing on it," Teel said. "The swing definitely shifted the momentum."
Three more walks followed Teel's home run to re-load the bases for Montevallo, before a sacrifice fly scored
Sebastian Samuels from third to tie the game at 6.
From there, the Falcons extended their lead every inning, before a seven-run bottom of the eighth really put the game out of reach. That inning featured the second of two home runs from
Davis Lott, who finished the game with three hits, a walk and eight runs batted in.
"As the game went on, we made adjustments (at the plate) overall as a team, especially" Lott said. "We just learned to sit on pitches and get what we wanted, and I think we made it happen."
As a team, Montevallo drew 16 walks, which were the second most in a single game in school history and the most by a Falcon team since UM earned 13 against Miles College on Feb. 13, 2007. Lott's eight runs batted in were the second most by a single Montevallo baseball player in a game and the most since Heath Peterson had 12 against Armstrong Atlantic on March 17, 2012.
Rose and the Falcons will return to action at 12 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 2 as Montevallo looks for the three-game sweep of Ohio Valley University.
