February 16, 2008

 

                Dayton, TN—The Lions, fresh off a Friday night win over the Indiana Wesleyan University Wildcats, took the field again Saturday afternoon for a double-header with the Wildcats. On the hill for the Lions was Sophomore Daniel Zimmerman, looking for his third solid outing of the season. After a no-hit performance against Johnson Bible, Zimmerman was dominant in relief on Tuesday at Atlanta Christian, and the Lions needed another strong performance if they had any hope of sweeping the series with two Saturday victories.

                Two pitches into Saturday’s first game, the Lions were down 1-0 on a leadoff homerun by the Wildcats’ CF, Kory Hollensteiner. This was not the start Bryan had hoped for, however Zimmerman buckled down and escaped the first inning with no further damage. From that point on Zimmerman found his dominant repertoire of pitches, and mowed down the Wildcats over the next 6 innings.

                The Lions remained silent until the bottom of the third inning when Senior Brad Starnes’ 1-out single plated Ryan Henn, tying the game at 1. Both teams went down quietly in the 4^th and Zimmerman again shut down IWU in the 5^th, giving his team a chance to win. The Lions found some offensive fire-power in the strangest of places in the bottom of the 5^th inning:

Making the first start of his career in the outfield, Jeremiah Peters, Friday night’s winner on the mound, stepped to the plate and delivered a towering homerun to right centerfield in the bottom of the 5^th inning. The homerun, Peter’s 1^st of the year, banged loudly off the top of the scoreboard in right, and gave Zimmerman all the run-support he would need. The Wildcats went down quietly in the 6^th inning, and Bryan’s Mark Barnwell came on to close out the game. After a leadoff single, Barnwell forced a groundout, and then a strikeout and another groundout, slamming the door shut on the Wildcats for his first save of the year.