LAKE WALES, Fla. - The Royals battled with #7 ranked Bellevue University on Tuesday night and would threaten to upset the top 10 ranked Bruins going into the 9th Inning tied at 3 runs each. The Bruins were able to scrap together a rally in the top of the 9th and squeak out the win as the Royals would fall 6-to-3.
Warner took an early lead against #7 Bellevue University when the Royals were able to create a 2 run rally in the bottom of the 1st.
Gabriel Rodriguez brought home the first run when he drove in
Jhenzel Figueroa on a sacrifice fly to right field and
Adriel Torres-Gonzalez drove in
Francis Alberto off an RBI single to center to give the Royals an early 2-0 lead. The Bruins answered back in the top half of the 2nd driving in 2 runs of their own to the tie the game at 2. Both programs would battle defensively over the next few Innings, seeing dominant performances by Warner pitchers
Luke Courville and
Evan Christ as well as tremendous defensive plays by both the Royals and Bruins to keep the game tied entering the 6th Inning. The Bruins would strike again in the 6th driving in the go ahead run off an RBI double to take a slim 1 run lead into the final Innings of the game.
Bellevue threatened to extend their lead in the top of the 7th with a runner on 2nd when Bellevue's Oak Held hit a ball out to right field that was hooking away from a chasing Figueroa. Figueroa tracked the ball down and made a full diving catch that would have easily gone down as an RBI double to extend the Bruins lead to 2. The Royals would then tie the game at 3 in the bottom of the 7th when
JD Swarbrick hit an RBI single through the right side of the infield to bring
Gabriel Rodriguez home. Figueroa then made another run saving play in the top of the 8th, when Bellevue tried sending a runner to the plate from 2nd on a ball that was hit out to right field. Figueroa charged in to corral the single hit his way before firing the ball into
Samuel Blanco at the plate who was able to tag out the runner well before he was able to score to keep the game tied and end the 8th for Bellevue. After a tightly contested game, the Bruins would be able to create a rally in the 9th and would close out the game with a 6-to-3 win over the Royals.
Senior
Luke Courville got the start for the Royals on Tuesday and threw a solid 3.0 Innings, allowing only 1 earned run on 4 hits while striking out 1 against the Bruins. Sophomore
Evan Christ then came in in relief to throw 5.0 Innings striking out 3 Bruins and allowed only 1 run on 4 hts against Bellevue's high powered offense. Warner fought hard against one of the top ranked teams in the NAIA and are sure to build off their performances as they re-enter SUN Conference play this week as they travel to #8 Southeastern University for a 4 game series that will begin on Thursday.
Warner Game Stat Leaders
Hits: JD Swarbrick (4)
RBIs: 3 Royals with 1 RBI
Stolen Bases: TImothy Dunn (2)
Ks: Evan Christ (3)
Up Next:
The Royals will take to the road to re-start SUN Conference play against
#8 Southeastern University for a 4 game series starting on Thursday, March 12th. There will be a double-header on
March 12th with games starting at
11:00 AM and 2:00 PM. The game on
Friday, March 13th will begin at
12:00 PM/Noon and the series will conclude on
Saturday, March 14th at 11:00 AM.
#GodBlessGoRoyals | #TogetherAsOne
