FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – The Nichols baseball team dropped their first game of the season to DeSales on Saturday night by the score of 8-6. Nichols falls to 1-1 on the season while DeSales picks up their first win of the year to even their record at one.
The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first thanks to a few errors by the Bison. Nichols answered back in the second, as third baseman
Cameron Guerrera crushed his first home run of the season to make it a 3-1 ballgame. DeSales added two more runs in the second to extend their lead to 5-1.
The Bison cut the deficit to 5-2 on a wild pitch, scoring
Johnny Knox, in the third inning. The teams remained scoreless until a Colin Trembley RBI triple in the fifth inning gave the Bulldogs a 5-1 lead. Nichols would not go quietly, using a
Will Kleinhenz walk, a
Brad Ellis RBI and a
Stanley Cipkas two-run single to even the score at six in the seventh inning.
DeSales answered quickly in the bottom of the seventh on a double steal with the runner from third crossing home to take the 7-6 lead. The Bulldogs added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single to make it 8-6.
Nichols brought the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth, but a strikeout ended the threat and handed the Bison their first loss of the campaign.
Guerrera picked up two hits on the day, including the home run.
Ben Jerome, Brennan Hyde,
Kelvin Gutierrez, and Cipkas all picked up hits for the Bison.
John Pollock threw four innings of one-run ball in relief, collecting three strikeouts.
Nichols looks to bounce back on Sunday, February 26 when they take on Methodist from Armstrong-Shelley field in North Carolina, with the first pitch set for 1:00 p.m.
