From Washington University Athletics
The Washington University in St. Louis baseball team recorded 13 hits and took advantage of five errors by Case Western Reserve University to score five unearned runs as the Bears picked up their third straight win with a 9-2 victory over the No. 15 ranked Spartans Friday at the University Athletic Association (UAA) Championship.
With the win, WashU improved to 5-3 on the season and 4-2 in the UAA. Case dropped to 4-2 overall and 4-2 in conference play. The Bears and Spartans are a game behind Emory University in the league standings. The Eagles have games against New York University, Case and WashU remaining this week. WashU returns to action against the University of Rochester at 2 p.m. (ET) Saturday.
WashU scored the first nine runs of the game and sophomore Brad Margolin did not allow a Spartan past first base through the first seven innings. Margolin threw eight complete innings in his first career start and first appearance of the season on the mound. He allowed just five hits, one walk and two earned runs, while recording a career-high five strikeouts.
In the top of the second, sophomore Ben Browdy led off with a single to third base. Junior Kyle Kozak reached on a fielder's choice to third and Browdy was safe at second when the throw pulled Case's second baseman off the bag to put two runners on with no outs. Senior Brandon Deger drove in the Bears' first run of the game with a line drive to right field to score Browdy from second. Sophomore Scott Nelson followed with a sacrifice fly to center field to put the Bears' ahead 2-0. Deger stole second and advanced to third on a groundout before scoring WashU's third run of the inning on a single by sophomore CJ Price to shallow center field.
The Bears got their first three batters on in the top of the third. Senior Brian Cizek and Browdy both got singles, and Kozak was hit by a pitch to load the bases. An infield fly and a strikeout brought senior Andrew Goldstick to the plate with bases loaded and two outs. Goldstick hit a hard grounder to second, but the Case second baseman bobbled the ball, allowing all Goldstick to reach first and Cizek scored to extend the Bears' lead to 4-0.
In the top of the fifth, Kozak reached on an error to start the inning, advancing to second on the play. Deger followed with a single to right to put runners on the corners with no outs. Nelson then drove a deep fly ball to center field for his second sacrifice fly of the game to make the score 5-0 in favor of WashU. The Bears added another run in the top of the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Goldstick to extend the lead to 6-0.
The Bears had three batters hit by pitches in the top of the eighth to go with a pair of singles and a walk. WashU added three runs in that inning to push its lead to 9-0. The Spartans finally got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the eighth with a single and back-to-back doubles to cut the Bears' lead to 9-2, but sophomore Bill Heisler got a strikeout and a double play in the bottom of the ninth to seal the win for WashU.
WashU totaled 13 hits for the second day in a row, including hits by eight different individuals. Deger finished 3-for-4 with a double, two RBIs and a run scored. Nelson was 1-for-3 with a pair of sacrifice flies, three RBIs and a run scored. Browdy (2-for-5, RBI, run), Cizek (2-for-4, two runs) and Lowery (2-for-5, run) added two hits each for the Bears.
Bear Notebook: WashU is 4-6 against Case in the past five seasons at the UAA Championship … The Bears had two steals in the game, and are 22-of-23 in stolen base attempts in six UAA games … All six WashU starting pitchers at the UAA Championship have thrown at least six complete innings … Kessinger brought his career hits total to 176, which is tied for eighth with Bob Wallace (1992-95) on WashU's all-time career leaderboard … Lowery's two hits moved him into a tie for 10th with Steve Steinbruegge (1997-00) with 173 career hits … Kessinger, Lowery and Price have all reached base safely in all eight of WashU's games this season.