March 5, 2017

FORT MYERS, Fla. - The Bluffton University baseball team opened its 2017 campaign in style with a sweep of Anna Maria on Sunday, March 5. Five Beaver hurlers combined to toss 14 innings of one-run ball, an unearned tally in the final frame on Sunday!

The Beavers scored on a pair of wild pitches in the fourth inning of game one and Ryan Golden (Findlay) picked up Adam Duncan (Northwood/Lake) with an RBI groundout two frames later as Bluffton took game one by a 3-0 count.

Senior Dyson Bowman (Coschocton) set the tone for Bluffton, notching 11 strikeouts in 5.2 inning of work. It was the 3rd-highest total for a single game in school history! He walked two and allowed just three hits. Taylor Gambrell (Bowling Green) retired the final four batters for the save and with it a combined shutout.

REid Maus (Hamilton/Badin), who went 2-of-3, and Jeff Arnett (Tecumseh, Mich./Tecumseh) notched doubles for the victors in game one.

Bluffton went up 3-0 in the top of the second and never looked back en route to the convincing sweep of Anna Maria. The Beavers crossed the dish five times in the fifth before adding three runs in both the sixth and seventh frames.

Luke Hickey (Toledo/Whitmer) was 3-of-4 with three RBI and two runs scored in the second contest. Austin Goetzman (Mount Vernon) and Tanner Hodges (Taylor, Mich./John F. Kennedy) drove in two runs apiece, while Luke Kail (Waynesfield/Sandy Valley) scored twice as Bluffton spread the wealth with eight Beavers recording hits in the 14-1 shellacking.

Senior Kevin Every (Zanesville/West Muskingum) earned the victory after limiting Anna Maria to four hits in five innings of work. He fanned five and walked three. Corey Johnson (Waverly) kept the shutout intact through six before sophomore Jack Bondy (Avon) wrapped up the victory with three strikeouts in the seventh.

The Beavers will meet Mitchell at 11 AM on Monday, March 6, from Port Charlotte, Fla. before a 2 p.m. battle with Ohio rival John Carroll at 2 PM.

-BEAVERS-