The Union baseball team competed in a double-header this weekend against Gulf South Conference foe Shorter University.
“The good thing about baseball is you play so many games you’re going to have stretches where you don’t play well, but you don’t have to wait a week or two weeks in between games,” said Brent Fronabarger, Union’s head baseball coach.
Fronabarger noted that the team had struggled defensively in the series against Trevecca Nazarene University and attributed some of the mistakes to having a young team on the field.
“The more they play, the better they’ll continue to get,” he said.
The Bulldogs split their games, winning the first of two in extra innings with a score of 3-2 and losing the second game 4-7.
In the first game, the Bulldogs missed an opportunity to take the lead with the bases loaded in the first inning and allowed the Hawks to take a 1-0 lead in the third inning.
Union came back to tie the game at 1-1 in the fifth inning, when Shorter pitcher Colton Cross made a throwing error to first base, allowing senior outfielder Brad Royer to score.
Shorter took a one-run lead again in the sixth inning. Junior first baseman Jim Martin tripled to right field to lead off the seventh inning, and a groundout by sophomore catcher Zack Wylie scored him.
Union scored the winning run in the 11th inning when junior second baseman Caleb Warnimont hit a sacrifice fly ball to score senior third baseman Andrew Allen. Junior pitcher Samuel Davis took the win for the Bulldogs, while Chadd Felder took the loss for Shorter.
In the second game, Shorter got out to a 0-7 lead by the sixth inning. Union scored two runs in the sixth inning to cut the score 2-7, and the Bulldogs had the bases loaded in the seventh after Warnimont and freshman shortstop David Shoemaker were hit by pitches and junior Michael Flores singled to left field.
Wylie walked, scoring Shoemaker and Andrew Allen singled to score Warnimont, making the score 4-7.
The Union rally fell short, however, and the Bulldogs lost the game 4-7.
Shorter’s Justin Machado took the win, while freshman Ted Christie took the loss for the Bulldogs.
