Graduate Justin Byler had three towering home runs in Friday’s 12-10 victory in the Raiders’ three-game sweep of Bloomsburg University Huskies. The Raiders combined 11 hits in the contest.
Byler had four of those hits and drove in seven runs in the game.
Brady Gibble hit a single that allowed one runner to score and gave the Huskies a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Huskies scored four more runs in the inning and got out to an early 5-0 lead.
In the second inning, sophomore Jaxon Dalena hit a home run, which got the Raiders on the board. The Raiders continued to come back and scored two more runs from Austin Baal and Byler. The Raiders cut down the lead to 5-3.
In the bottom of the third inning, Gibble hit a home run which extended the Huskies lead to 6-3.
The Raiders tied the game at six when Byler hit his first home run of the game and cut the deficit down to just one run. Later in the inning, Dalena hit a single that brought home the tying run. The Raiders came all the way back and tied the game at six.
The fireworks did not stop there because in the bottom of the fifth the Huskies scored two more runs. After a scoreless top of the fifth for the Raiders, the Huskies broke the tie in the bottom of the fifth and scored two runs to take an 8-6 lead.
The Huskies continued to pile on the runs and built up a 10-6 lead through six innings.
In the seventh, Byler hit his second home run of the game and cut the lead down to three runs.
In the ninth inning, Byler went yard again; this time it was a three-run home run to tie the game at 10.
The Raiders got the winning run to the plate when Brock Piper reached base after a throwing error by the center fielder. Two runs scored after the error, and the Raiders won the first game of the series 12-10.
On Saturday, the series shifted to Fairchild Field for a doubleheader. In the first game of the doubleheader, the Huskies got on the board first in the fourth inning. Two runs came across which gave the Raiders an early 2-0 lead.
The Raiders responded with five unanswered runs in the fifth and sixth innings and won the second game of the series 5-2.
In the final game of the weekend, the Raiders’ bats continued to roll. The Raiders scored four runs in the first three innings of Saturday’s rubber match. The Huskies scored two runs in the sixth inning, which cut the Raiders’ lead to one run. From that point, the Raiders scored three runs in the seventh and eighth innings and put the lid on the series sweep of the Huskies.
The Raiders return to Fairchild Field on Tuesday to host Seton Hill at 3 p.m.
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