MIAMI SHORES, Fla. – Barry University’s baseball team stormed to a 3-2 victory Friday night over Rollins College in dramatic fashion.
Barry (16-18, 9-7 SSC) entered the game in the midst a tough stretch of games after losing three consecutive games at Tampa and dropping another game on Tuesday versus Palm Beach Atlantic. Determined to end the slide, the Bucs showed their resiliency against the Tars on this night.
Kevin Youst (1-3) took the hill for the Buccaneers and worked one of his strongest outings of the season. Scattering five hits and only allowing two runs in eight innings of work Youst kept the Bucs in the game throughout.
Rollins plated runs in the sixth and seventh innings on a solo home run off the bat of Brandon Curson and an RBI single by Sean Reilly but were otherwise held in check.
Offensive struggles have haunted the Bucs this season as they have been unable to push runs across with runners in scoring position. This seemed to be the case once again after the Buccaneers stranded the bases loaded in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings consecutively.
However, even after stranding 12 runners, the Bucs trailed by just a run in the bottom half of the ninth. After a fly out to left to start the frame, Luis Arrizurieta got the inning started with a base hit to right.
Following a strikeout, Adrian English and Tim Blackmon each walked to load the bases with two outs, setting up the dramatic finish.
Lyndon Coleman stepped in, and the senior delivered. Coleman drove a liner over the head of left fielder Hunter Mayfield to drive in Arrizurieta and English lifting the Bucs to victory in walk-off fashion. The Bucs raced on to the field in celebration, a great bounce-back game to end the recent skid.
Calvin Rayburn worked a scoreless ninth to earn his second win of the season.
Arrizurieta led the Bucs going 2-for-4 with two runs scored. Julio Ramos, Adrian English, Bryant Elliott Michael Slabach and Lyndon Coleman each rounded out the Bucs seven hits.
The Bucs will wrap up the three-game set Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader beginning at 12 noon at Feinbloom Field.
Live-stat and audio broadcast will be available through the Barry University athletics website, GOBARRYBUCS.COM.