Tschepikow homer ties series at two
FAYETTEVILLE –Senior Ben Tschepikow belted a two-run home run in the top of the 10th inning to give the Cardinal team its second win in as many days, 5-3, and tie the best of seven series with the White team at two games each during the annual Cardinal-White baseball series on Friday evening at Baum Stadium.
Coming back twice to tie the score, the Cardinal team racked out 10 hits on the day and took its first lead when Tschepikow took an 0-2 pitch over the fence with one out and a runner first. Freshman Seth Gardner had led off the inning with a single.
White got off to a solid start with two runs in the bottom of the first inning off Cardinal starter Christian Kowalchuk, but following the rocking beginning, Kowalchuk settled in to allow just one hit over the next four innings, a triple in the fifth by sophomore Jacob House.
Down by two, Cardinal picked up two runs in the top of the fifth to tie the game. A leadoff single by redshirt freshman Greg Noble was followed by a walk to fellow redshirt Tim Carver. A sacrifice bunt by freshman Bo Bigham led to an RBI single by Gardner which scored two runs as the White catcher made an error on the play.
White jumped ahead again in the bottom of the fifth on a sacrifice fly by freshman Zac Russell which scored House but a leadoff home run by Brett Eibner in the top of the sixth knotted the game once more.
Starting pitching for both teams was nearly identical as both Kowalchuk and White starter Jeremy Heatley each pitched five innings and allowed three runs on four hits. The difference in the game was relief pitching as the tandem of Dallas Keuchel and Mike Bolsinger for team Cardinal combined for five innings of work and just two hits while striking out eight. White relievers threw four innings and gave up six hits including the two-run homer by Tschepikow. Bolsinger earned the win to move to 1-0 in the series while Justin Wells was given the loss to go to 0-1.
Sophomore Brett Eibner led all hitters with three hits including his home run in the sixth. He was one of four Cardinal hitters to post multiple hit games. Sophomore Andy Wilkins, Noble and Gardner were the others to accomplish the task while Tschepikow had the only other Cardinal hit. On the White side only senior Chase Leavitt would record two hits while redshirt freshman Collin Kuhn, sophomore Travis Sample, junior Thomas Hauskey and House had one each.
Game five of the Cardinal-White series is slated for Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Baum Stadium with game six scheduled for Monday afternoon. For more information regarding Razorback baseball or University of Arkansas athletics please visit ArkansasRazorbacks.com.
Download: Cardinal-White Game 4.pdf
