April 12, 2008

Final Stats

The Bisons took the series from Florida Gulf Coast on Saturday, April 11, but could not pull out the sweep as they were defeated in game two 10-9 after taking game one 6-1.

The Bisons wasted no time getting on the board, with Jorge Gutierrez leading off the bottom of the first with a solo homerun.

Florida Gulf Coast tied the game with a run in the third, but the Bisons retook the lead for good in the fifth on a lead-off homer by Ryan Wilkins.

The Bisons added to their lead in the sixth, scoring a run on an RBI single by Justin Sanders.

Lipscomb stretched their lead to 6-1 in the seventh. Allen Bolden got the scoring going driving in Gutierrez for a 6-3 Bisons lead. The next batter, Caleb Joseph, made the score 6-1 when he drilled his tenth homerun of the season, over the batting cage in left field.

Bisons' starter, Brandon McClurg got the win in the complete game effort to improve his record to 5-1. He gave up just one run in the outing, while allowing five hits and striking out six.

Joseph led the Bisons on offense, going 2-2 with two RBIs, and two runs scored. Gutierrez and Sanders also had two hits for the Bisons.

In game two, the Eagles got on the board first, plating three runs in the first inning off of Bisons' starter, Mike Dunn.

The Bisons got one of the runs back in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Gutierrez.

The Eagles stretched their lead back to three with another run in the fourth. Furthermore, they added another run in the fifth to chase Dunn from the game, and increase their lead to 5-2. Reliever, Josh Smith relieved Dunn with one out in the fourth. In 4.1 innings of work, Dunn gave up five runs on ten hits while striking out three.

The Eagles got to Smith for three runs in the seventh to take a comfortable 8-2 lead. The Bisons did get one of the runs back in the bottom of the inning, when Bolden drove in a run with a double down the right field line. The next batter, Joseph, picked up where he left off in game one, lining a ball over the left center field wall for a two-run homer, to pull the Bisons to within 8-5.

After the Eagles got back one of the runs against Bisons' reliever Chris Burnett in the eighth, Wilkins responded for Lipscomb, belting a home run to center field to bring the score to 9-6.

The Eagles plated another run in the ninth to stretch their lead to four. The Bisons attempted to rally for the second day in a row in the ninth. Ben Williams led off the inning with a double down the left field line. One out later, Bolden drove Williams home with a double of his own. Bolden would come around to score on a single by Joseph. After Bratcher singled to put runners on the corners, Sanders drove home another run with a sacrifice fly to center to bring the score to 10-9 the final.

Dunn received the loss to drop his record to 3-2. With the loss, the Bisons dropped to 20-15 and 14-7 in the conference.