Beloit College baseball team wins in walk-off fashion against UW-Superior

AUBURNDALE, Fla. — Beloit College had the would-be winning run thrown out at the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning.

No problem. They still had clutch-hitting Matt O’Leary on deck.

The Buccaneers only had four hits to that point against the UW-Superior Yellow Jackets in the RussMatt Invitational and the third was Jack Alport’s double to right center that pinch-runner Ryan Kopp tried to score from second on. He was cut down at the plate on a close call.

O’Leary, however, delivered a line single to center and this time Alport beat the throw to the plate to produce an exciting 3-2 victory.

Beloit (4-3) starter Caleb Lasher was terrific. The sophomore right-hander from Albuquerque, N.M., worked 6 1-3 innings and allowed only four hits and two runs. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out seven.

Reliever Micah Wilk came on to get the final two outs of the seventh inning , but not before the Yellow Jackets pushed across their two runs. Harvey Pena (1-0) picked up the win, working two scoreless innings and allowing only one hit, Beloit’s only walk of the game and four more strikeouts.

The Bucs had put a run across in the sixth when O’Leary walked, stole second and moved to third on a groundout by Connor Vogel. Brett Kiger belted a deep enough fly to right to score O’Leary.

Down 2-1 after Superior’s at-bat in the seventh, the Bucs collected a one-out pinch-hit single by Seth Brankey in the bottom of the inning. Pinch-runner Brody Bremer stole second and then both Alport and O’Leary drew walks to load the bases. Vogel collected a tying sacrifice fly to right as Bremer beat the throw home to tie the score and set up the ninth-inning drama.

Superior (4-3) used five pitchers with reliever Reese Fleig (0-1) taking the loss after coming on and allowing both hits by Alport and O’Leary.

• UP NEXT: The Bucs have Wednesday off and then return to action Thursday at 8:45 a.m. CT against Greenville University.

• LINESCORE:

BELOIT 3, UW-SUPERIOR 2

UW-Superior 000 000 200 - 2 6 0

Beloit College 000 001 101 — 3 4 2

Leading hitters: UWS, O’Dwye 2x3, 2 rbi. BC, Alport 1x3, 1 run; O’Leary 1x3, 1 run, 1 rbi; Souza 1x3; Brankey 1x1 . 2B: Fredrik (UWS), O’Dwye, Alport.

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so): UWS, Welle 5.2-1-1-1-3-8; Higgi 0.2-1-1-1-3-1; Coady 0.1-0-0-0-0-0; Jensen 1.2-0-0-0-1-2; Fleig (L,0-1) 0.1-2-1-1-0-0. BC, Lasher 6.1-4-2-2-0-7; Wilk 0.2-1-0-0-0-0; Pena (W,1.0) 2.0-1-0-0-1-4