No. 4 Lipscomb (31-27) played valiantly in the ASUN Championship, but it suffered a final loss in the double-elimination tournament to No. 5 FGCU (25-31) by a score of 8-6 Friday night at Ken Dugan Field.
Coach Jeff Forehand said it was an “abrupt” end to a good season.
“When you put so much into it all season and then play such a good game this morning and then battle in this game too, it’s tough to see everything end in one day like this,” Forehand said.
In the weekend series against the same Florida Gulf Coast team earlier in the season, the Bisons won one of three. They scored a victory the first game 5-4 but lost the latter two games 19-4 and 7-4.
The Bisons started the day off with an extra-innings 1-0 loss against No. 2 North Florida, causing the later game against FGCU to be an elimination game.
Redshirt freshman Kyle Kemp started the game for Lipscomb, allowing five hits and four runs, striking out three and walking two in five innings. Forehand brought in senior reliever Kyle Weller after the fifth.
The Bisons’ bats may not have been hot in their morning game, when they had just two hits, but they came through with several solid hits against FGCU.
In the first inning, Lee Solomon managed to beat out an infield hit before advancing to third due to a throwing error. Adam Lee then belted a homer, giving the Bisons an early 2-0 lead.
The FGCU Eagles returned in the third inning to score four runs, two of which were due to a fielding error.
The Bisons came back in the bottom of the third to take the lead. Freshman Zeke Dodson came up to the plate and knocked in runner Lee with a RBI single before Tevin Symonette crushed a two-run homer, putting Lipscomb back up 5-4.
In the top of the fifth, the Eagles’ Stefano Belmonte tied the game up with a sacrifice fly.
FGCU had a successful sixth inning, with three more runs to make the score 8-5. Solomon would go on to get one more RBI, making the score 8-6, but it was not enough, and the Bisons saw their season come to a sudden end.
Senior relief pitcher Jaesung Hwang had an impressive outing for his last college game, striking out two and allowing no runs in 3.1 innings.
Five other seniors, Lee, Weller, Chucky Vazquez, Cody Glenn and Geordie Carlson, also saw their college careers end Friday night.
No. 5 FGCU will face No. 2 North Florida for a redemption match at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The winner of the game will move on to face No. 6 Stetson in the championship final.
Additional reporting by Lipscomb Athletics
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics