Bat Cats Fall to FHU in Bowling Green
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. The No. 4 seeded Bethel Wildcats and the No. 1 seeded Freed-Hardeman Lions met at high noon in the MSC Championships at the Bowling Green Ballpark in Bowling Green Friday. Both teams sent their aces to the hill. Marco Santa started for the Wildcats while the Lions sent Colton Huntt to the mound. It did not go well early for either hurler.
The squads scored a combined 11 runs in the first two innings. In the end, FHU would capture an 11-4 victory. The No. 20 nationally ranked Lions moved to 35-13 and will play in the winner's bracket Saturday. The Wildcats dropped to 18-23 and will play an elimination game against Cumberland University at 9 a.m. Saturday.
Like their opening win over Campbellsville, the Wildcats jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Ivan Vega hit a one- out homer over the left field fence to stake the Cats to a 1-0 lead. It was Vega's second homer in as many days. Jacob Foster drew a two-out walk. After a J T Morgan single and a walk to Luis Aristud, Logan Beecham walked to score Foster and the Cats led 2-0.
The Lions answered with a three-run first. The big blow was a two-run homer by William Kelley.
The Cats came right back in the top of the second. Wyatt McKee singled. He moved to second after a sacrifice bunt by Kendrick Osborne. Vega singled to drive McKee in with the tying run.
The Lions scored five runs on six hits in the second and led 8-3 after the first two innings.
The Wildcats scored a single run in the sixth. Beecham and Aristud singled. Aristud would score on a fielder's choice off the bat of Bryan Catala.
The Lions added three more late inning runs to complete the scoring.
Freed outhit the Wildcats 16-9.
Santa suffered the loss while Huntt picked up the Lion win. Bethel's Noah Willingham pitched five solid innings after entering the game in the third.
In early April, Cumberland won all three games played between the two squads in McKenzie. The games were later ruled as forfeits in favor of the Wildcats.
All tickets must be purchased in advance.
Ticket Link:
https://naiastats.prestosports.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/boxscores/20220505_fvwz.xml
Live stats:
https://naiastats.prestosports.com/sports/bsb/2021-22/boxscores/20220505_fvwz.xml
Live video:
Tournament page with bracket:
https://www.mid-southconference.org/2022-msc-baseball-tournament