April 11, 2006

Box Score

After dropping the series to Mercer over the weekend, the Bisons came out ready to play on Tuesday, April 11, against NAIA opponent Mid-Continent.

Robby Smithson got the start for the Bisons. Smithson came into the game with a perfect 3-0 record.

The Cougars struck first in the top of the first on an RBI single by Terry Roof.

The Bisons took the lead with two runs in the bottom of the second. Zac Miller led off with a double down the left field line. Justin Sanders followed with a double, and advanced to second on a fielding error by the Cougar's center fielder. The next batter, Caleb Joseph hit an RBI sacrifice fly to give the Bisons' a 2-1 lead.

The Bisons added another run in the bottom of the third on a sacrifice fly by Tadd Brewer.

Zac Miller and Patrick O'Rourke led the Bisons with two hits each, while Branden Cadavid added two RBI's in the Bisons 6-4 victory.

Smithson earned the win for the Bisons to improve his record to 4-0. In five innings, he gave up two runs on seven hits. He struck out six.

David Ayre relieved Smithson in the sixth and threw two scoreless innings. John Newman closed out the victory for the Bisons, earning his first save of the season.

"The pitching was really good tonight," Joseph said. "Robby came out and gave us five really good innings. He got out of a couple of jams with some really key strikeouts. Then Ayre, Szymanski, and Newman came in and finished the job. They came in and threw strikes, which is really what you want to see."

The win brings the Bisons' season record to 15-16.

"A good positive thing about today's game is that we were able to manufacture runs," Joseph said. "We weren't living or dying by one guy hitting a double to the fence. That is going to be really important going into tomorrow's game against Vanderbilt, because they are going to come out throwing everything they got at us."