Temple Escapes Eighth Inning Jam to Defeat Delaware, 12-10, in the Blue Hens’ 2011 Home Finale
May 11, 2011
Photos Courtesy of Mark Campbell_lg.jpg)
• Boxscore
NEWARK, Del. - - Trailing by three runs with the bases loaded and no outs in the eighth, the University of Delaware baseball team only scratched one run across as Temple escaped Bob Hannah Stadium with a 12-10 victory on Wednesday afternoon.
Steve Ulaky, Chris Branigan (above right) and Dave Anderson all homered for Delaware (26-24), but the Blue Hens could not stop the Temple (23-24) bats in the non-conference slugfest. Temple out hit the Blue Hens, 20-14.
All six seniors saw action for head coach Jim Sherman, as Wednesday was their final home game while donning the Blue and Gold. Anderson led the way for the Blue Hen offense, as he finished 3-for-5 with two RBI’s and two runs scored. Classmates Pat Dameron and Ulaky (below right) each went 1-for-4. Ulaky finished with three RBI’s in his final home game, while Dameron knocked in one run.
Delaware found itself down early in the ball game once again, but used a six spot in the bottom of the fourth to crawl all the way back and take the lead, 8-7.
Branigan led off the frame with a laser of a home run to right field on the first pitch he saw. It was the third home run of the season for the left-handed hitter. Dylan Shupe and Anderson followed with singles and got to second and third by a sacrifice bunt by Alex Mottle. Now with the bases loaded and a new pitcher on, Dameron hit a chopper to the shortstop and beat the throw for a RBI infield single. Shortstop Elijah Yarborough added insult to injury by overthrowing the first baseman, allowing another run to score and Long to reach third base.
Long eventually scored on a wild pitch a batter later, but would have scored regardless because Ulaky sent a towering blast to right on a 2-1 pitch to take the lead, 8-7. It was his team leading 14th home run on the season.
The lead didn’t last long for the home team, however, as Temple came right back and tied the game in the top of the fifth. The Owls then took the lead for good with a three run seventh inning.
With the bases loaded and one out, Steve Nikorak hit a sacrifice fly to Alex Mottle in right that easily scored the go-ahead run from third. The Owls tacked on two more runs in the inning as pinch hitter Will Remillard singled through the hole at third for the added insurance runs.
Temple would add another run in the eighth to round out the Owls scoring on the afternoon, but had to fight to keep the Blue Hens from mounting a late inning comeback.
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Trailing by four, Anderson led off home half of the eighth with his career high sixth home run of the year, lining a ball down the left field line. Mottle, Long and Dameron all reached base following the home run to load the bases with no outs.
Temple head coach Rob Valli turned to Steve Visnic to get out of the jam, and the reliever executed the feat almost perfectly. The only run he gave up was on a sacrifice fly by Ulaky, but Visnic got Nick Ferdinand to fly out and EJ Stoltzfus to ground out to escape the inning.
Senior Matt Harden was saddled with the loss while allowing two runs on four hits in 1.2 innings. Reliever Tyler Horst moves to 2-0 for the Owls, pitching two innings while allowing two runs on four hits.
The Blue Hens will look to snap their five game losing streak as they finish their 2011 Colonial Athletic Association schedule this weekend at Northeastern. The first game of the series is scheduled to start at 3 p.m. on Friday.
As an additional scheduling note, next week’s game scheduled for Tuesday, May 17 at Rutgers has been canceled due to travel and class restraints.
AGATE:
Temple…… 0 3 2 2 1 0 3 1 0 – 12 20 2
Delaware… 0 2 0 6 0 0 0 2 0 – 10 14 3
E – Yarborough 2 (8); Long (13); Mottle (1); Young, N. (3). LOB – Temple 15; Delaware 7. 2B – Nikorak (22); Khan (6); Flanary (11); Long (20); Branigan (4). 3B – Dragos (1). HR – Ulaky (14); Branigan (3); Anderson (6). SH – Mottle (2). SF – Nikorak (3); Ulaky (4); SHupe (1). SB – Nikorak (5); Dragos (4); Dunigan (1); Yarborough (1).
Win – Tyler Horst (2-0). Loss – Matt Harden (0-2). Save – Steve Visnic (3).
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