Late Homer Lifts Lakers Over Bulldogs On Spring Break Trip

DAVENPORT, Fla. – A pair of home runs was all the offense Roosevelt needed to take down Concordia (Neb.) 4-2 in the second game of the Lakers' spring break trip Monday at the RussMatt Invitational.

Sean Blanchard homered in the first inning to stake the Lakers (7-4) to a 1-0 lead, but it was Bryce Hayman who delivered the proverbial haymaker. Roosevelt was trailing 2-1 entering the eighth inning when A.J. Gliwa worked a one-out walk to spark the offense. Jojo Mack followed with a single of his own to right field to bring Hayman and the top of the order up to the plate. The senior outfielder looked at the first pitch then made no mistake on the second offering, drilling it over the right-field fence to put the Lakers up 4-2.

Until Hayman's blast, it was a stellar pitcher's duel between Bryan Green and his counterpart from Concordia. Both pitchers were dented early as Green allowed a pair of doubles in the first inning to quickly allow the Bulldogs to tie the game at 1. The Lakers went down in order in each of the next five innings while Green danced in and out of trouble for the final six of his innings on the mound. The senior was able to strand the bases loaded with one out in the second inning then worked around a single in the fourth.

However, the Bulldogs took their only lead of the game in the sixth inning with a little bit of two-out magic against Green. A pair of singles gave Concordia runners on second and third when Green uncorked a wild pitch that allowed the runner on third to scoot home. Even though Green induced the batter to ground out and end the inning, the Lakers still had just the Blanchard home run ruining a perfect game.

In the seventh inning, Roosevelt's offense began to work with Daniel Gutierrez and Blanchard hitting consecutive singles to start the frame. Although, the next three Lakers hitters all got out, the two hits helped jump start Roosevelt's offense to allow it to strike in the eighth inning to reclaim the lead. Krzysztof Solis came on to pitch a six-out save, highlighted by picking off a Concordia runner at second base in the eighth inning after allowing a double to put runners on second and third.

The Lakers play their first doubleheader of their spring break trip Tuesday with a pair of games against Northwestern (Iowa) beginning at 1:30 p.m.