The Citadel Bulldogs baseball team lost 5-4 to Liberty in the deciding game of their three-game series on Sunday at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park in Charleston, South Carolina.
Liberty opened the scoring in the second inning when Jordan Jaffe hit an RBI triple that brought home Kyle Hvidsten. Easton Swofford followed with a groundout that allowed Hvidsten to score, giving Liberty a 2-0 lead.
The Citadel responded in the bottom of the second. Zach Hunt singled and Miles Barbrey walked before Christian Stratis laid down a sacrifice bunt. Garrett Fulmer grounded out to bring Hunt home, and an error allowed Barbrey to score, tying the game at two runs each.
In the fifth inning, The Citadel took a two-run lead after Hunt’s RBI triple and a sacrifice fly from Barbrey.
Liberty scored single runs in each of the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings. They took the lead for good in the eighth after Jaffe led off with a double and Tanner Marsh drove him in with a sacrifice fly.
Hunt led The Citadel’s offense with two hits—including a triple—and one RBI. Barbrey added one hit, one RBI, one walk, and stole a base. Phillips Daniels also contributed with a run scored and one hit.
On the mound for The Citadel, six pitchers were used during the game. Ben Brash started but lasted only 1.2 innings after allowing two runs on two hits. Jacob Deacon and Stephen Platte combined for 3.2 innings of relief work, giving up just two hits and striking out four batters while allowing one run.
Steven Trone pitched briefly before Trip Brown entered for an inning; Brown was charged with both the tying and go-ahead runs as well as taking the loss. CJ Van Slooten finished out by pitching two scoreless innings without allowing any hits.
For Liberty, Bradley Zayac earned the win by throwing four shutout innings with seven strikeouts while surrendering only three hits.
“The weekend was a bit disappointing. Our goal is to win every series, and it was a tough start. Liberty is an NCAA tournament-level team with strong pitchers,” said head coach Russell Triplett. “Many young players gained valuable experience. I thought we competed on the mound, but didn’t attack the strike zone enough when we struggled at the plate. Still, we made key pitches with runners in scoring position. We just need to play better to beat a good team in a weekend series.”
The Bulldogs will next host Marshall for games on February 20-21 before facing Army on February 22 at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.
