The Eastern Michigan baseball team lost three games and won one in the 2019 Alamo Irish Classic. Their victory was over Notre Dame on Feb. 22. The Eagles lost both games in their doubleheader on Feb. 21.
Eastern started the tournament facing Notre Dame. In the first game, Notre Dame jumped out to an early 2-0 lead off of a double from Daniel Jung to score Spencer Myers and a single from Jared Miller to score Jung. Eastern Michigan tied up the game in the third with a triple from Zachary Owings to score Shane Easter and a ground out from Jacob Bolton to score Owings. The game was broken wide open in the sixth inning with Notre Dame scoring six runs. Eastern Michigan was only able to add one more run the whole game on an RBI compared to Notre Dame’s 11 total runs scored.
Eastern Michigan then played against Incarnate Word in the second game of its doubleheader. The first score was in the second inning when Incarnate Word loaded the bases off of a walk, hit pitch and a single from P.J. Shaver. Ryan Gonzales then hit a fly out to bring in Taylor Smith. Lee Thomas then hit a single to score Antonio Valdez. This put Incarnate Word up 2-0. Eastern Michigan remained quiet offensively.
Incarnate Word tacked on two additional runs in the fourth inning from a double, single, then another double to leave the score at 4-0 going into the bottom of the fourth. Eastern Michigan gained two unearned runs to bump the score to 4-3. Incarnate Word then scored three more runs in the sixth inning, and Eastern Michigan couldn’t fight back. The final score was an 8-3 win by Incarnate Word.
In the third game of the tournament, the Eagles were able to earn their first victory of the season. They defeated the Fighting Irish 4-2 behind a dominant pitching performance by Holden Cook. He threw six scoreless innings, while giving up just four hits and totaling three strikeouts. Jacob Bolton got the scoring going in the fourth inning with an RBI single to centerfield. Cameron Cruz and Stephen Karis also knocked runners in. The Eagles got up 4-0 and held on for a two-run victory.
The final game of the weekend was against Incarnate Word on Feb. 24. Eastern Michigan struggled offensively all day long and were only able to compile four hits. Cruz had one hit on three-plate appearances and earned a walk. Jordan Thompson was the star for Incarnate Word, who finished with two hits and two runs batted in. He helped Incarnate Word get on the board in the second and fourth innings. Kyle Bergeron and Eddy Gonzalez helped add to the lead and push their team to the shutout win. Aaron Celestino went seven innings for Incarnate Word and gave up no runs on only three hits.
The Eagles will be back in action Wednesday, Feb. 27 against Abilene Christian in Abilene, Texas.
