Oct. 31, 2014
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Down 2-1 entering the seventh inning, the Blue squad plated four runs in the bottom half of the frame and held on late to claim a 6-3 victory over the Gold squad Thursday night at Frank Eck Stadium.
The two squads will play one more game Sunday in their annual Blue-Gold Series, with first pitch slated for 2 p.m.
A pair of Gold runs in the sixth inning put them up 2-1, as a single from senior Robert Youngdahl and a sac fly by fellow senior Kevin DeFilippis scored junior Ricky Sanchez and Youngdahl, respectively. Sanchez started off the inning with a triple down the right-field line to get Gold some much needed momentum.
Blue wouldn’t let the Gold lead get them down, however, as they came out on fire in the seventh inning with a triple by sophomore Kyle Fiala followed by a hit batsman and a single from freshman Evy Ruibal that tied the game at two. Later in the inning, grad student Forrest Johnson tagged an RBI single to center field and senior James Nevant hit a sac fly to score Ruibal and give Blue a two-run cushion. Finally, sophomore Chris Melillo doubled to right center to score Johnson from second to put Blue in front 5-2.
Gold trimmed the lead to 5-3 in the eighth inning on an RBI single from sophomore Ryan Lidge, but junior Lane Richards put Blue back up three in the bottom half of the eighth with an RBI single through the right side.
Fiala had the lone multi-hit day for the Blue squad, who had eight players record hits. Six different players scored runs for Blue.
The Gold team tallied 11 hits, with four coming from Youngdahl. The New Brighton, Minnesota native went 4-for-5 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored. Sanchez and Lidge both recorded two hits, while DeFilippis had two walks in addition to his base knock.
In addition to his solid night at the plate, Youngdahl started for Gold and turned in a solid outing with four strikeouts in four innings while allowing a walk, a hit and one run.
Senior Kyle Rubbinaccio threw a clean fifth inning for the Gold team, as he allowed a walk and hit – in addition to tallying one strikeout – on 22 pitches.
For Blue, freshman Brandon Bielak earned the start and allowed three hits, a walk and no runs in 3.1 innings of work. Junior Connor Hale picked up the win after giving up three hits and an unearned run in 2.1 innings of work. Meanwhile, freshman Brad Bass picked up the save after allowing one hit and walking two batters in 1.1 innings to close out the game.
–Russell Dorn, Assistant Media Relations Director
–ND–