THE RUNDOWN

The Belhaven University baseball team opened the weekend with a 4-2 win over the University of Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneers to begin the Belhaven/Millsaps Tournament off on the winning side of things Friday afternoon.

Through four innings of play, Belhaven and UW-Platteville remained scoreless at 0-0. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Nick Lucido led off the inning with a single to center field before advancing to third base after back to back ground outs from Gasper D'Anna and Logan Walters. With Lucido at third and two outs, Drew Bellipanni delivered a single to left field, scoring Lucido to give Belhaven a 1-0 lead.

The sixth inning allowed Belhaven to add three insurance runs beginning with back to back hits from Julyan Urena and Justin Milam (double) that gave Belhaven a 2-0 lead. Lucido singled a few batters later, scoring Milam to extend the lead to 3-0. A wild pitch eventually scored Lucido as the Blazers concluded the sixth with three runs and a 4-0 lead. 

The Pioneers got two runs back in the top half of the eighth inning but were shut down by the Blazers bullpen the rest of the way, as Belhaven closed out the ninth inning with a 4-2 victory over the Pioneers.

Starting pitcher David Hall was dominate of the mound for Belhaven. Hall finished with six strikeouts on the day, including four strikeouts in the first two innings, and striking out the side in the second inning. Hall allowed only one hit through the first six innings of play, and zero runs through the first seven. Hall finished the game with seven innings complete, six strikeouts, three hits allowed, and two runs.

On the season, Hall improved to 2-0 on the mound. 

BELHAVEN ASSISTANT COACH JOSH CLARKE ON DAVID HALL'S PERFORMANCE

"David gave us exactly what we needed today and set the tone for the entire team. We feel confident that if our starters give us quality starts that we can hand it off the bullpen to shut the door."

BELHAVEN ASSISTANT COACH JOSH CLARKE ON THE OVERALL WIN

"Overall, we thought the team played the way we preach to them all the time-pound the strike zone, play clean defense and come up with some timely hits."

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

- Belhaven finished with seven hits on the afternoon, improving to 3-4 of the season overall.

- Nick Lucido and Justin Milam each finished with multiple hits with two apiece. 

- Lucido, Milam, and Drew Bellipanni had one RBI each.

- David Hall went seven innings, with six strikeouts, three hits, and only two runs allowed.

UP NEXT

Belhaven will play a double-header tomorrow afternoon beginning at 1:00 p.m. versus Centenary College (La.)