Box Score Powered by Allen Dennis, the Loyola Wolf Pack scored eight unanswered runs Wednesday night against Bryant & Stratton College to earn the win in the 10th inning
WESTWEGO – The 12th-ranked Loyola Wolf Pack found themselves in a hole Wednesday night against Bryant & Stratton College - Albany, but timely pitching and clutch hitting sparked a huge comeback win for the Pack. Trailing 8-1 after five and a half innings, Loyola scored the next eight runs of the game to win in 10 innings, 9-8.
Next up for Loyola (9-6) is a road trip to Batesville, Arkansas, to take on Lyon College for a three-game set starting on Saturday at 3 p.m.
Allen Dennis was Loyola's only offense through five-plus innings, hitting solo home runs in the consecutive at-bats in the fourth and sixth innings. By that time, however, the Bobcats had already scored eight runs on six Wolf Pack pitchers to hold an 8-2 advantage. Continuing the bottom of the sixth after Dennis' home run that hit the top of the scoreboard, the Pack got another run to score when Gabriel Trastoy doubled over the right fielder's head. That made the score 8-3 in the Bobcats' favor, as a Wolf Pack runner was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
Loyola got another run back in the bottom of the seventh via another homer, this time off the bat of Payton Alexander to make it an 8-4 game. Things got interesting in the eighth inning after Dennis and Tucker Ganley led off the frame with back-to-back singles, then Luke Clement narrowed the deficit to one with one swing of the bat. He sent a no-doubt line-drive home run over the left-field wall to cut the score to 8-7.
In the bottom of the ninth, Dennis came up clutch again, hammering a pitch over the center fielder's head to score Alexander, who led off the frame with a triple. That tied the game, but the Wolf Pack stranded two runners to send the game to extra innings.
While the first six Wolf Pack pitchers combined to allow the first eight runs, Matthew Bratton, Christian Mejia and Brett Fisackerly pitched the final four innings in dominant fashion. The trio only allowed one hit, which came in the seventh inning off Bratton, but no more Bobcat runs were scored. Bratton pitched the seventh, only allowing the hit, then Mejia struck out all three batters he faced in the eighth before recording his fourth strikeout in the ninth. Fisackerly earned the win after throwing just nine pitches in the 10th inning.
Trastoy started the bottom of the 10th with a single to quickly put the pressure on Bryant & Stratton, then a sacrifice bunt by Christopher Bohrer put pinch-runner Tyler Hopkins in scoring position with one out. Kason Cullins and Alexander were intentionally walked to make every base a force-out, and Selvaggi ended the game with a sacrifice fly to deep right field.
Wolf Pack Head Coach Jeremy Kennedy
On his thoughts of the game:
"We had a bunch of quality at-bats, a bunch of clutch hits, and we had some clutch hits that ended up being outs because we squared it right at people. Christian Mejia came in and just did an unbelievable job. He's been doing a lot of that so he's going to continue to get more opportunities as a young guy. Just a quality comeback. We put ourselves in a hole with mistakes, but we kept plugging away and plugging away. We talk about it all the time, and talking about it and doing it are not the same thing. We certainly did it tonight."
On Allen Dennis' performance:
"He's got light-tower-power. If he's on time, there's usually going to be some damage done, so he can have big nights like this. When he puts it on the barrel, that's what you expect to happen."
On the turning point of the game:
"The most important thing was Christian coming in. Good pitching gives you confidence. Pitching with tempo, pitching with focus, pitching with aggressiveness and execution gives the whole team confidence, and that's what he showed. When you have that up there, it changes the demeanor of your team. When you have guys up there, not intentionally, who are showing timidness, then that bleeds onto your team, too. For Christian to go up there like that, I think more than anything, is what turns a team around. If you're pitching really well, then you don't have to score a bunch of runs. That feeling of him throwing up zeros, then we have some breathing room. Obviously, those guys in the middle of the order hitting, it's a big difference when the wind isn't blowing 15, 20 miles per hour, and it gives you a catch to hit. Allen didn't catch all of that first home run that he hit, but because the wind isn't blowing in and he's a big strong guy, then it's a big difference. If those guys hit, we win, usually."
Pack Facts
Allen Dennis had one of the best offensive games of his Wolf Pack career, going 4-for-5 at the plate with two home runs, a game-tying double, three RBI, and three runs scored.
Dennis is now tied for fourth in Loyola history in career runs scored with 142. He leads the team with five home runs this season.
Reaching at least first base in every game this season, Dennis extended his on-base streak to 15 games on Wednesday. He also has back-to-back multi-hit games.
Payton Alexander also had a good offensive day, tallying two hits which were a homer and a triple, two runs including one that tied the game, and two walks.
Alexander also stole two bases, moving up to third in Loyola history in that category with 60 career steals. He's also now third in the record book in two other categories: career home runs (18) and career triples (6).
As a team, Loyola totaled five stolen bases against the Bobcats, their highest total of the season so far.
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