With a pair of home runs from Zeke Dodson and a one-run outing from pitcher Brady Puckett, the Lipscomb Bisons (13-8) brought home a win over the Evansville Purple Aces Friday night at Ken Dugan field.
Not only did the Bisons keep their five-game win streak intact, but head coach Jeff Forehand got his 500th collegiate win tonight (211 Trevecca, 289 Lipscomb).
“It’s great,” Forehand said. “It will be big probably for me later on. I don’t want to make light of the whole thing because it is a cool thing, but this is a win — and it’s great. I’m happy to have 500 and hopefully I’ll be around for 600.”
Puckett and Dodson also had big nights for the team, with Puckett nailing down the 4-1 win with strong defensive play and Dodson with solid offensive play. Pitching a full nine innings, Puckett entered the game with 18 career wins. This victory tied him with Brandon McClurg (06-09) for the most career wins in the program’s NCAA era.
“I thought Brady pitched really well,” Forehand said. “To pitch all nine innings and only give up one run, that’s a really good start, and we’ve really come to expect that from him.”
For the first three innings, Puckett set the tone for the rest of the game, going three up three down each inning. It wasn’t until the fourth inning that Evansville’s Kenton Crews got a single off the 6’9″ pitcher for the Purple Aces’ first hit of the game. Puckett finished the game only allowing six hits.
The Bisons had some close calls during the game but still managed to pull out the win. Evansville’s Craig Shepherd came up to bat in the top of the 7th with bases loaded and two outs, only to hit it right back to Puckett for an easy out.
Dodson hit two solo home runs, crushing his second in the bottom of the 8th immediately followed by a solo-home run by Perry. Evansville’s Ryan Brady, who was pitching in relief for Schnieders, gave up the two homers and followed with hitting Blake Thomas, advancing him to first. In a tense moment, the umpire threw Brady out of the game, so Evansville brought in pitcher Hunter Porterfield.
“We started off slow, but we’ve really just worked on settling down, relaxing, playing the game that we ought to play,” Dodson said. “Brady always gives us a great start, and our lineup is starting to figure it out, and we feel really comfortable at the plate. It’s really cool to get coach’s 500 wins tonight.”
The Bisons return to face Evansville at 11 a.m. Saturday morning at Ken Dugan field.
Photo courtesy of Lipscomb Athletics