The University of Akron Athletics
Baseball Edged in Midweek Matchup to Xavier, 5-4
May 14 | Baseball
Follow Zips Baseball on Twitter (@ZipsBB) and Facebook
AKRON, Ohio – The University of Akron (15-34) baseball team lost the midweek matchup on Tuesday against Xavier University (28-23) by a score of 5-4 at Hayden Field.
Freshman JT Brubaker made the start on the mound for Akron, and lasted 5.2 innings with eight hits, four runs allowed and five strikeouts. Brubaker was given a no-decision in the loss.
"JT was better today, and needs to continually improve with each outing.," Head Coach Rick Rembielak said of Brubaker's outing. "Would still like to see him stay locked in and make shutdown pitches when things get away from him. At that stage, it becomes more of a state of mind to execute the pitches properly."
The game went scoreless until the bottom of the fourth when Xavier registered back-to-back RBI singles off of Brubaker to take a 2-0 lead. The Musketeers added two more runs in the sixth, this time on an RBI double and sacrifice fly.
"We didn't show any threat offensively for the first seven innings," Head Coach Rembielak said on Tuesday. "We were not aggressive with the majority of the pitches we saw being fastballs."
Down 4-0 in the top of the eighth, Akron pulled off a four-run rally to tie the ball game. Singles by Brady Stewart, Bryan White and Daulton Mosbarger loaded the bases for UA with one out.
Sophomore Matt Rembielak drove in the first run of the game on a fielder's choice, which was followed up with an RBI single to center by Devan Ahart.
After Ahart's RBI hit, pinch-hitter Billy Salem knocked an RBI single to right field to bring in Rembielak. Senior Jared Turocy capped off the Zips scoring effort with a single to left field to plate Ahart. Turocy extended his consecutive game hit streak to 19 games with the eighth inning single.
The Zips looked to Pat Dyer out of the bullpen after the four-run rally. Dyer worked a scoreless eighth inning to keep the game tied at four runs heading into the ninth inning.
Akron went in order in the ninth, keeping the game tied at four going into the bottom half of the inning. Xavier put runners on second and third before securing the 5-4 win on a walk-off RBI single up the middle.
"The eighth inning was good, but we put ourselves against the wall with a couple misplays defensively in the ninth and didn't finish the deal," Head Coach Rembielak said after the loss.
Dyer was tagged with the loss on Tuesday afternoon. The sophomore from Columbus, Ohio now owns a record of 0-4 this season.
Akron baseball will look ahead to a three game series against Mid-American Conference rival Kent State University, beginning on Thursday at 6:30 p.m., in Canal Park for the Diamond Class for Kids. Tickets are five dollars with proceeds going towards the Akron Children's Hospital.
The winner of the Zips-Flashes series will clinch the PNC Wagon Wheel Challenge, an all-sport rivalry competition between the two schools.
