Privateers Baseball Uses Offensive Barrage to Power Past Stephen F. Austin

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NEW ORLEANS – Dakota Dean and Hezekiah Randolph both hit grand slams and the University of New Orleans baseball team (14-4, 3-1 Southland) exploded for 13 runs in the last two innings of a 19-11 win over the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks (9-10, 0-4) on Friday at Jaycees Field. The run total was the highest by a Privateers squad since 2010 and the win matched UNO's win total from 2015.
 
Trailing 7-6 entering the eighth inning, the Privateers got base hits by Chaz Boyer and Ryan Calloway. After Aaron Palmer drew a walk to load the bases, that brought up Dean who smashed a grand slam that stayed inside the right field foul pole to give UNO a 10-7 lead. In the bottom of the frame, the Lumberjacks got a one-out single, but Daniel Martinez came in to strike out the next two batters and preserve the entire advantage heading to the ninth.
 
UNO then posted nine runs in the ninth inning. Calloway, Preston Marsh, and Jay Robinson each collected two RBI in the frame as the Privateers sent 13 batters to the plate and had 10 hits off the Lumberjacks pen. For the game, UNO scored 14 runs (all earned) against Lumberjacks relievers. The Privateers had a total of 20 hits on the night, seven going for extra bases.
 
"We want to be aggressive but in our zone," said Coach Blake Dean. "We preach about it every day to attack in your zone. A few times we didn't, but for the most part we did. We got in advantage counts and we made them pay for it."
 
The Lumberjacks gathered the early momentum scoring three runs in the first inning against starter, Shawn Semple who was lifted after 3.2 innings. Hunter Medine came in and with the bases loaded, got out of a jam by getting Tyler Boxwell to fly out to center. Medine threw 2.2 innings of relief as first call out of the pen.
 
"Shawn didn't have his best stuff tonight, but we've got to find ways to get the job done and we swung the bat well," said Dean. "Medine gave us a good chance. He got out of a jam, pitched a few innings for us to take the pressure off our hitters and we got going."
 
The Privateers were trailing 5-2 when the first of their grand slams happened. Randolph came up with one out and the bases loaded and blasted one to left-center to give UNO their first lead of the night at 6-5. That advantage was short lived though as Stephen F. Austin came back for two runs in the bottom of the frame on a Kyle Thornell single.
 
"Those guys can hit," said Dean. "That was a slugfest and we've got to do better pitching. We can't expect to score 10 or more runs every game."
 
Dean and Randolph each had four RBIs and combined to score five runs. Calloway was 3-for-6 with two RBI and two runs. Boyer added a four-hit night at the plate in five at-bats and scored three times. Robinson was also 3-for-6 with two RBI and two runs. Jarred Taylor picked up the win as he pitched a scoreless frame. Kyle Bracey homered and drove in two runs.
 
The Lumberjacks were led by Thornell's four-RBI night. Conner Fikes added four hits and two RBI. Zach Michener was 3-for-6 with three RBI. Fikes and Michener hit back-to-back homers in the second inning for Stephen F. Austin. The Lumberjacks used five relievers and the bullpen gave up 14 runs on 16 hits over 4.2 innings.
 
The series continues on Saturday at 2 p.m.
 
Season tickets for the 2016 campaign are available for as low as $125 and single-game tickets start at $5. For additional information, contact the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263) or click HERE.
 
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