ELON, N.C. – Despite matching a season high with 13 hits, the Elon University baseball team dropped a 10-4 decision to the visiting VMI Keydets at Latham Park on Saturday afternoon.
Ryne Ogren led the Elon (8-11) offense with a career-best four hits. He doubled three times. CJ Young added three hits for the Phoenix.
VMI (8-9) got two hits and four RBI from Josh Hollifield, while Jacob Jaye went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and one RBI.
Elon starter Jordan Barrett (1-2) took the loss after giving up five runs (four earned) on four hits in 6.1 innings. Barrett struck out eight.
Derek Tremblay (1-0) earned the win in relief for VMI. Tremblay threw 1.0 shutout inning and gave up a pair of hits. Ryan Bennett allowed one hit over the final 2.0 innings to earn his second save of the year.
How It Happened: VMI jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the second inning. With one out, Will Malbon and Jaye singled around a walk to load the bases. Hollifield then delivered a double down the leftfield line to score all three runners.
Elon got two runs back in the bottom of the inning when Liam O’Regan connected on his first home run of the season. Young rode home on the homer after reaching on a one-out bunt single.
The Phoenix went on top 4-3 in the next inning as Shawn Blake belted his second homer of the year. This one was a rocket to right that brought home James Venuto.
The game remained 4-3 until the seventh when VMI managed to push across another three runs. With one out, Peyton Maddox reached on an error, moved to third on a Jaye single and scored on Hollifield’s bunt single. Michael Diodato and Matt Dunlevy followed with RBI singles as the Keydets built a 6-4 advantage.
VMI would add four insurance runs in the top of the ninth to complete the scoring.
Notes: During his seven-game hitting streak, Ogren has gone 14-for-29 (.483)… Following the three-RBI double in the second, Barrett retired 15 consecutive hitters before the error in the seventh… Elon recorded multiple home runs for the second time this season – the other was a four-homer game in a win over Radford.
On Deck: The Phoenix and Keydets will play the rubber match of the series on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at Latham Park.