Box Score
Jackson, MS-It wasn't pretty on Friday afternoon, but the Belhaven baseball team came away with a 9-6 victory at Tougaloo in game one of a three game Gulf Coast Athletic Conference series with the Bulldogs. The Blazers committed three errors, but took advantage of two Tougaloo miscues to help pull out the victory.

Friday's game was scoreless through the first three innings until Belhaven (18-4, 10-2 GCAC) got on the board first in the top of the fourth. Bulldog starting pitcher Shermain Page, who had kept Belhaven's offense in check until that point, got Timmy Foster on a fly out to right field followed by a pop up to second base off the bat of Derek Tortorich for the first two outs in the inning. However, a double by Brandon Benton kept the inning alive and a crucial throwing error by shortstop William Lowe on a ground ball by Kyle Feazell opened the door for both Blazer runs. Benton scored on the error and then a Craig Dean single to left brought home Feazell to make it 2-0.

Tougaloo (2-17, 1-12) answered back in the fifth inning with two runs of their own knotting the score at 2-2. Lowe came in on a wild pitch and William Walker plated Deron Simpson on with an RBI single to left field. Belhaven battled back to take the lead in the top of the sixth on an RBI double by Shawn Diehl followed by a run scoring single to center off the bat of Drew Dillard to put the Blazers ahead 4-2. Belhaven appeared to have put the game away with three more runs on four hits in the top of the seventh extending the lead to 7-2 late in the game. Benton singled to left chasing home Foster and then both Dean and Diehl followed with run scoring singles to account for the other two runs in the inning.

In the eighth, Belhaven went up 8-2 as Paul Moreno started the inning with a double to right field and went to third base on fly out to center off the bat of Lake Eiland. Moreno then scored on a wild pitch by Micahael Langston who had come in to relieve Page in the seventh frame. The Bulldogs made a run to get back in the game with four unearned runs in their half of the eighth. Miscues by Dean and Diehl led to all four of the Bulldogs runs giving them two extra outs to work with. Myron Gilmore had the biggest hit in the inning which was a two run single down the line in left which pulled Tougaloo to within two at 8-6.

The Blazers did tack on an insurance run in the top of the ninth as Dean delivered a leadoff single and eventually made it to third base before stealing home to make it a 9-6 game. Belhaven then called in Wade Broyles from the bullpen to pitch the ninth and he set the side down in order for his sixth save of the season.

Brandt Hinton made the start and although he struggled at times, earned the win running his record to 5-0 on the season. Hinton pitched seven innings and allowed six runs on nine hits with four strikeouts. Only two of the runs ended up being earned because of the errors on defense. Andy Kuehn had another good outing logging an inning of work before giving way to Broyles in the ninth.

Belhaven was led on offense by Dean who went 4 for 5 at the plate with 2 RBI's and a run scored. Diehl had two hits in the scorebook in three plate appearances with a run scored and two runs batted in. Benton had a 2 for 4 afternoon with an RBI while Dillard had one hit and one run batted in. It took some time for the Blazers to adjust to Page's pitches, but they finally got on track later in the game and put enough runs on the board to win the contest.

Page through over 130 pitches in 6.2 innings of work suffering his fourth loss of the season on the mound for Tougaloo. Page gave up seven runs on nine hits walking six while striking out four. Langston allowed the other two Belhaven runs on four hits. At the plate, the Bulldogs were led by Gilmore with 2 RBI's and Walker had a pair of hits and one run batted in.

Belhaven will conclude their series with Tougaloo on Saturday afternoon in a scheduled twin bill with the Bulldogs beginning at 12:00 PM. All the live play-by-play action of both games can be heard via Stretch internet through the Belhaven Athletics website beginning with the pregame show at 11:45 AM.