MONTEVALLO, Ala. – The University of Montevallo baseball team wins their season opener against Embry-Riddle, 4-2, on Friday, Jan. 31. The Falcons are now 1-0 while the Eagles fall to 0-1.
Embry-Riddle seized the momentum early as they drew a lead off walk in the first.
Christian Kallaher quickly erased the base runner attempting to swipe second. The Eagles kept the pressure on as they drew a second walk then singled to through the right side. With runners on first and third, the Embry-Riddle clean up hitter picked up an RBI-single to take the lead.
In the bottom half of the first, Embry-Riddle picked up the first two outs of the inning.
McGwire Turner started a two-out rally with a base knock through the right side.
Jackson Webster jumped all over a first pitch fastball and lined it into the trees beyond the left center fence for his first home run as a Falcon. A batter later,
Evan Radford went back-to-back with Webster as he hit a towering shot onto the parking lot over the left field wall to put the Falcons up 3-1.
Adiel Melendez began to settle in for the Falcons on the mound in the second inning. After walking the lead off batter, he induced a double-play ball turned by
Ethan Huddleston and
McGwire Turner. Melendez got the third out of the inning via fly out to right. Montevallo struck with more two-out magic as
Blake Wood drew a walk.
Connor Crowson moved Wood to second with a single.
Logan Harbin hit a ball that just snuck inside the third base bag to score Wood from second.
From there on,
Adiel Melendez found his groove as he put together two consecutive 1-2-3 innings. In the top of the third, Melendez got two weak ground outs and weak line out caught by Huddleston at shortstop. In the fourth, the Falcons made quick work again of the Eagle order with two foul outs and a ground out. Melendez would give way to
Seth Gurr with two outs in the fourth. His final line was 4.2 innings pitched, three hits, one earned run and two strikeouts. With two on, two out, Gurr got out of the jam with a ground out to short.
In the top of the seventh, Embry-Riddle threatened the Falcon lead as they had runners on second and third with one out. The Eagles would score the next batter with a sac fly to left field to shorten the UM lead to 4-2.
Matthew Bullard would relieve Gurr with two on, two out by forcing a weak ground out to second.
Garrett Sloan would take over for the Falcons on the mound in the eighth inning. Sloan had a dominant appearance as he struck out both batters he faced in the eighth. He would slam the door in the ninth with two ground outs and his third strikeout of the night. Sloan would earn the five-out save.
GAME INFORMATION
Score: Montevallo 4 | Embry-Riddle 2
Records: Montevallo 1-0 (0-0 GSC) | Embry-Riddle 0-1 (0-0 SSC)
Location: Kermit A. Johnson Field at Bob Riesener Stadium (Montevallo, Ala.)
GAME NOTES
ON DECK
Montevallo will turn around and take on Embry-Riddle on Saturday, Feb. 1 for the second game of their three-game series.
Zach Wyatt will take the mound for the Falcons.
