Falcons Claim Series at DBU With 5-3 Victory

DALLAS, Texas – The Air Force Academy baseball team claimed a series victory over Dallas Baptist with a 5-3 win Sunday afternoon, April 18, at the Horner Ballpark. The win gets the Falcons back above .500 on the season at 15-14.

The Falcon pitchers once again held one of the more potent offenses in the country mostly in check. Overall on the weekend, AF held DBU to just five runs on 12 hits. The Patriots had entered the weekend as the 12th team in the nation in scoring and 17th in batting average.

Junior CJ Dornak earned his third win of the season after a career-best outing in relief. The righty tossed 3.1 innings of scoreless ball, only allowing one base runner to reach on an infield single, while striking out three. Freshman sensation Paul Skenes earned his second save in a row, and sixth on the season, after tossing a scoreless ninth, including a K. Junior Stevan Fairburn Jr. went the first 4.1 innings, and struck out six, tying his career-best.

On offense, AF pieced together five hits from five different players. Senior Christian Gambale tallied a two-RBI single, while Skenes added an RBI double to extend his hitting streak to seven and reached base streak to 16. Junior Gabriel Garcia also added a solo homer, his third dinger on the year.

The Patriots struck first in the first inning with a solo homer to take a 1-0 lead after one. AF answered back in the third inning on an RBI double from Skenes to tie the game at one. After a quick bottom of the third from Fairburn, AF grabbed a 2-1 lead in the fourth on a solo homer from Garcia to left center.

Fairburn kept cruising in the bottom of the fourth, notching his fifth K to keep the lead into the fifth. In the top of the fifth, Gambale delivered with a two-run single through the right side to double AF's runs, and get the lead to 4-1 into the midway point.

DBU got the offense back into gear in the bottom of the fifth as they got the two runs back on an RBI triple. Despite having the tying run at third, Dornak came out of the pen and notched a huge strikeout to maintain the 4-3 advantage with four innings to play.

Dornak continued to carve in the sixth and seventh, retiring all six batters he faced to maintain the slim lead into the eighth inning. He retired the first two batters in the eighth before an infield single ended his streak of nine-straight sent down. Despite having the tying run on first, Dornak notched his third K to end the eighth and kept it 4-3 into the ninth.

In the top of the ninth, junior Alexander Pup drew a walk and sophomore Blake Covin singled to put two on with one out. After the second out was recorded, DBU threw away the potential third out, allowing Pup to score an insurance run and make it 5-3 into the last of the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth, the Patriots got one runner on via a walk, but Skenes was able to work around it to lock down his second save in as many games, and the two-run series clinching victory.

The Falcons will be back in action next Saturday-Sunday, April 24-25, for a three-game series at home against Nevada. Action from Falcon Field will begin with a doubleheader on Saturday with an 11 a.m. MT first pitch.

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Team Stats

Paul Skenes

Christian Gambale

Gabriel Garcia

Alexander Pup

Players Mentioned

Blake Covin

CJ Dornak

Stevan Fairburn Jr.

Christian Gambale

Gabriel Garcia

Alexander Pup

Paul Skenes

Players Mentioned

Blake Covin

CJ Dornak

Stevan Fairburn Jr.

Christian Gambale

Gabriel Garcia

Alexander Pup

Paul Skenes

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