Baseball
Drovers Down Cameron, Wins Seventh Straight
“It was a pretty uneventful win. We had control of the game from the first pitch to the last pitch. We just handled our business,” assistant coach Mike Ross said pointing to Ryan Birney’s line drive, leadoff single which helped the Drovers jump out to a 2-0 lead.
Birney then stole second base and scored on Cody Hines’ 11th double of the season. Scott Ylda, who went 3-for-4 on the day and is batting .426 on the season, ripped a double to left field that scored Hines and gave USAO its 2-0 first inning lead.
Cameron scored an unearned run in the bottom half when Hines gave up a passed ball. USAO answered in the top of the third as Hines drew a leadoff walk. Ylda moved Hines into scoring position with a single, and Brandt Lierle collected his 24th RBI of the season with a single to center field. The single that scored Hines gave USAO a 3-1 lead.
The Aggies cut the lead to one run in the bottom of the third with a score on a groundout.
USAO added an insurance run in the top of the seventh against CU’s closer Jason Smith. Smith, who has all five of the team’s saves this season, gave up a leadoff walk to Louie Romero. After Hines laid down a sacrifice bunt that moved Romero to second, Cody Howard drove in Romero with a double to left field.
Sopic collected his second win of the season in his longest outing of the season. The junior from Arlington, Texas, gave up only one earned run on five hits while striking out five batters. Ken Wieda earned his fourth save of the season as he pitched a scoreless seventh inning allowing only two hits and striking out three batters.
“We should have thrown a shutout,” Ross said. “The two runs we gave them, were from a walk and an error. The bottom line is that beating Cameron does not get us into the post season, but it was a decent win.”
With seven straight wins, USAO improved to 19-15 overall with a date at Hillsdale College Thursday and then a four-game Kansas road trip next week.
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