Falcons Stunned by Patriots in the Ninth Inning

USAFA, Colo. – The Air Force Academy baseball team was stunned in the ninth inning in a 6-5 defeat to Dallas Baptist, Saturday afternoon, March 23, at Falcon Field. The Falcons (9-9) led 5-2 with two outs in the ninth inning, when DBU (17-5) hit a grand slam, which wound up being the difference.

Prior to the grand slam, Air Force pitchers tossed eight innings of solid baseball, led by senior Matt Hargreaves who went the first 6.2 in a no decision. The righty only allowed one run, unearned, on five hits while striking out five. He now has an astounding 0.83 ERA over his first 21.2 innings.

In relief, sophomore Luke Chilcutt took the tough loss after going 2.1, giving up just one earned run as the grand slam resulted in four unearned runs. He struck out a pair.

On offense, the Falcons spread nine hits across the yard, one more than DBU. Three players had two-hit days, led by senior Nic Ready who had two hits and two RBIs to extend his hitting streak to ten. Freshman Alexander Pup also had a two–hit day, including a double.

The first inning was a sloppy one, with three errors spread between the two teams. The result was three unearned runs, one for DBU and two for Air Force on RBI fielder's choices from seniors Gabe Martinez and Rob Dau, leading to a 2-1 AF lead after one.

After that, both teams settled in with scoreless frames over the next three innings to keep the score into the fifth. There, AF extended the lead to 3-1 on an RBI single from sophomore Christian Gambale following a double from junior Tommy Gillman and single from Pup.

Hargreaves continued to carve in the sixth, retiring his seventh straight in a 1-2-3 frame to get to the seventh. In the seventh, he ran into some trouble, loading the bases with two outs. That's when Chilcutt was summoned, and induced a routine ground out to maintain the two run lead.

In the bottom of the seventh, the Falcons got some insurance as Ready singled in a pair to get him to within two of the all-time Air Force RBI record. DBU responded with a run in the top of the eighth, however, to make it a three run game into the ninth.

The ninth started off with an error, and spiraled from there with a pair of walks. Chilcutt was able to get a foul out and strikeout though, to make it two outs with the bases loaded. DBU got the clutch hit it needed though, as they smacked a grand slam to straight away center field to jump ahead, 6-5. The Falcons then went 1-2-3 in the bottom of the frame to seal the devastating loss.

Game three between Air Force and Dallas Baptist comes tomorrow, March 24, inside Falcon Field. First pitch is set for noon MT.

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