IOWA CITY, Iowa — In a back-and-forth affair, the Black Team came back from a 5-0 deficit, scoring eight runs in the final two innings to take Game 1 of the Black & Gold World Series, 9-8, at Duane Banks Field on Friday afternoon.
Trailing 8-6 in the bottom of the seventh, redshirt senior Austin Martin (2-for-4, HR, 3 RBIs) delivered a game-tying, two-RBI double to tie the game at eight. Following a wild pitch, the Gold Team elected to load the bases via back-to-back intentional walks, but it didn’t pay off. Freshman Andy Nelson completed Gold’s comeback with a walk-off walk.
The Black Team’s comeback started with a five-run sixth inning to go ahead 6-5 for their first lead of the game. The Gold Team used three pitchers in the sixth inning, before retaking the lead in the top of the seventh on redshirt senior Ben Norman’s second home run of the game. Norman homered in the top of the first and reached base five times, going 3-for-3 with three RBIs, two home runs, two walks, and a double out of the leadoff spot.
Redshirt senior Matthew Sosa (2-for-4, 2 RBIs) and freshman Keaton Anthony (2-for-4, HR, 3 RBIs) tallied multi-hit games for Gold’s offense, who scored the game’s first five runs
Redshirt junior Trenton Wallace started on the bump for Gold, pitching four innings of shutout ball, striking out six and allowing only four hits. Five relief pitchers pitched the final three innings for Gold.
Four Black Team hitters – Austin Martin, redshirt sophomore Connor McCaffery (2-for-3, 2 BB), redshirt senior Lorenzo Elion (2-for-4, RBI), redshirt freshman DJ Heck (2-for-3, BB), recorded multi-hit games.
Redshirt sophomore Duncan Davitt pitched the first two innings for Black, allowing three runs on three hits and three walks, followed by freshman Will Semb, who surrendered two runs and three hits in three innings of work.
The intrasquad best-of-five series continues tomorrow morning at 10:50 a.m. (CT). The game will be streamed live on Facebook @IowaBaseball.
