The Bruins picked up their first home series win in program history as they ran away with an 8-4 victory in game one but dropped their second game against the Paine College Lions at Conestee Park in Greenville, South Carolina.
"We're still learning and teaching the guys how to compete. They're doing such a great job in learning that. We saw it last night, and we saw it again today," said Head Coach Brent Casteel. "We seemed kind of low and then all of a sudden they light it up to bring it back and we win the game. I'm very proud of them. Then we came to game two, and there are a lot of things I have to think through. I took notes throughout the game and we'll come to an understanding of what puts us in the position where we allow the wheels to fall off. All in all a fantastic weekend, we just wish it didn't end the way it did."
Bob Jones came into today's game on the heels of an exciting walk-off victory on Friday night. After Paine College tied the game at the top of the 8th, the Bruins and Lions would go into extra innings where a single from Riley Ramsey would score Isaiah Brandt to give the Bruins the 5-4 win.
As game one of today's doubleheader got underway, the Bruins looked to Joshua Legnard at the mound. It became a pitchers dual early on as Legnard and Christian Tibidijo would both hold off any runners from scoring through the first four innings.
Some errors on the Bruins side would allow Paine College to score first at the top of the fifth inning. With two Lions on base, David New homered giving the visiting team a four-run lead.
Down by four, the Bruins needed to get things going quickly and they did just that in the bottom of sixth inning. With one out and the bases loaded, Shane Paruch would single sending Zach Burk across home plate to put the Bruins on the board. Next up to bat was Chad Bayne who cleared the bases with a double hit out to the center left field gap. And just like that it was a 4-4 ballgame. With two outs on the board, Riley Ramsey would come up to the plate and hit the ball out of the park scoring three runners for his third home run of the season. Not to be outdone, Cole Pearson would hit another home run for the Bruins making it the first back-to-back home runs in program history and giving the team the 8-4 lead.
"They finally believe in themselves and they finally believe they can hit it," said Casteel when asked about what brought on the onslaught of runs.
The Bruins held on for one final inning to take the 8-4 victory and secure their first series home win in their two year history. Joshua Legnard came away with the win finishing with 12 strikeouts in his first complete game for the Bruins.
After a brief intermission, the two teams were right back in actionfor game two of the day. Riley Ramsey was the only one to cross home plate in the first inning giving the Bruins a short-lived advantage. Paine College would run away with eight runs in the second inning and add two more at the top of the third.
The Burk brothers were back at it as Conley Burk singled to send Zach Burk home at the bottom of third. The Bruins saw themselves down 10-2 after three innings.
The fifth inning saw three runs from Paine College and only one run from Daniel Barcena for Bob Jones. Paine College brought home seven more runs to give them the 20-3 win Friday evening.
"We're always talking about process and how if you follow that you'll find consistency. So we're learning how to follow that and as we continue to learn that, I believe we'll find success."
The Bruins are back at home Tuesday afternoon for a rematch against Maryville College at Conestee Park.
