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Bulls Overpower Redhawks, Sweep Four Game Series

Seven Bulls registered a hit in Sunday’s series finale.

By Nathan Bond

The momentum from Saturday nights walk-off win carried over for the Bulls Sunday as they beat Miami University 11-2 behind seven extra base hits including home run’s from 2B Coco Montes, LF Chris Chatfield, and newcomer OF Cam Crabbe.

Montes has been stellar so far this year at the dish and at second base. The sophomore leads the team with a .400 batting average with 2 HR and 6 RBI’s. Defensively he has made a smooth transition to second from shortstop, where he played all of last season, and has a perfect fielding percentage through the first eight games.

“I’m playing with a lot of confidence right now, seeing the ball well and have a year under my belt which is the biggest difference for me,” Montes said.

Montes tallied three hits, including a game-tying solo shot in the bottom of the first inning that sparked the rest of the Bulls to pour it on versus a clearly over-matched Redhawk squad.

SS Kevin Merrell did Kevin Merrell things, getting three hits, scoring two runs (10 on year) and swiping his fifth base of the season.

With the Bulls already leading 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth, back-to-back-to-back hits from CF Garrett Zech, Merrell and Montes brought in four runs and blew the game wide open.

Miami used seven pitchers, three of which weren’t able to record a single out.

USF starting pitcher Peter Strzelecki managed to get through four innings and struck out six before giving way to a quartet of relievers—Noah Yager, Collin Sullivan, Ryan Valdes and Mark Savarese—to get the final 15 outs.

“I told the team before the game, you want to pitch well, play great defense and score a lot of runs and we executed in all three of those areas today,” head coach Mark Kingston said. “The sweep is nice but there are areas we can get better at and it’s a constant growing process and we will focus on how can continue to improve.”

The Bulls welcome in Toledo Friday at 6:30 p.m. for a three game set.

Notables:

  • JUCO transfer Clay Simmons recorded an RBI double in his first at-bat for USF
  • Not to be outdone, fellow JUCO transfer Cam Crabbe hit a HR on the second pitch he saw for his first hit/HR/RBI/run as a Bull
  • RHP Ryan Valdes struck out the side in the eighth.
  • Yager earned his first career win, pitching two innings in relief.