DAYTON, Tenn. - The
Bryan College baseball team put together an explosive offensive performance on Tuesday, rolling past Tennessee Southern 16-5 at Senter Field in Dayton, Tennessee, to improve to 22-20 overall
The Lions wasted no time jumping on Tennessee Southern starter Barrett Brown, but it was actually the visitors who drew first blood. Tennessee Southern came out swinging in the top of the first, stringing together a pair of sacrifice flies and a Zac Wilson RBI double to take a 3-0 lead before Bryan ever stepped to the plate.
Bryan answered in the second inning when
Will Curcio drove home
Morgan Halliday to cut the deficit to 3-1, and the Lions continued their climb in the third when
Denajh Williams laced a two-run double to score
Caleb Ramsey and
Chris Hall, knotting the game at three.
Tennessee Southern briefly reclaimed the lead in the fourth inning, pushing across two more runs on a stolen base by Reagan Tomlin and a sacrifice fly from Anthony Pastrana to go up 5-3. That lead would be short-lived.
What happened in the bottom of the fourth inning was nothing short of extraordinary. Bryan sent 16 batters to the plate in a historically dominant frame, scoring 11 runs and effectively putting the game out of reach. The inning featured a parade of hits, walks, and Tennessee Southern miscues.
Logan Stradley,
Cyrus Campos,
Jayron Morris, and
Will Curcio all had key RBI knocks, and the inning reached its peak when
Caleb Ramsey launched a two-run home run to left field, scoring
Chris Hall ahead of him and pushing the Bryan lead to 10-5. The Lions kept going from there, eventually scoring three more times before the inning mercifully ended, capped by a
Caleb Ramsey sacrifice fly that made it 14-5.
Bryan added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings to reach the final score of 16, with
Logan Stradley reaching base on a Tennessee Southern error in the fifth to score
Lane Brooks.
Ramsey was the offensive star of the afternoon, finishing 2-for-4 with a home run, three RBI, two runs scored, and a sacrifice fly. Stradley also had a strong day at the plate, going 1-for-4 with three RBI and two runs scored. Campos contributed a 2-for-5 line with a double and two RBI, while Curcio went 2-for-2 with two RBI and two walks.
Jayron Morris added two hits and an RBI, and
Caleb McCarty came through with a clutch pinch-hit single and an RBI out of the designated hitter spot.
On the mound, starter Jd McCurry was not at his sharpest, allowing five runs over 3.2 innings, but the bullpen bridged the gap. Reliever
Tyler Gray was outstanding, tossing 2.1 scoreless innings while striking out three, and earning the win to improve to 1-0 on the season.
Ryan Ely closed things out with a clean final inning.
Tennessee Southern's pitching staff struggled badly, surrendering 16 runs across six innings with four different pitchers failing to record an out or finishing with poor results. Barrett Brown took the loss. Bryan's 11-run fourth inning proved to be the backbreaker, aided by four Tennessee Southern errors on the day.
Bryan College will look to build on this momentum as the season heads toward its final stretch. The Lions will have a break and won't compete until next week Thursday, April 23rd as they host Tennessee Wesleyan for the final series of the regular season.
