After watching his team hold off Samford University for a 10-8 win, Elon University baseball coach Mike Kennedy sat among his assistant coaches in the Phoenix dugout, relief stitched all over his worn face. His team won a game Friday night representative of their season as a whole that appeared to be following the same script for much of the last two innings.
The Phoenix had jumped out to a commanding, seemingly insurmountable lead, only to see the Bulldogs chip away and eventually come within one base hit of tying the game in the top of the ninth inning.
Senior Andrew MacDonald, who pitched the last four innings for the Phoenix, looked to be handing the game to the Bulldogs in the ninth after giving up one run and allowing the tying run to reach second with two outs and a 2-2 count on Bulldogs right fielder Patrick McGavin.
“I was thinking, 'Please throw a strike down in the zone,’” Kennedy said. “We knew we had a base open, we knew we had a good matchup. The thing you hope is that you don’t make a good pitch and the guy dumps it in somewhere and they tie the game on you.”
MacDonald was able to ease Kennedy’s tension, striking out McGavin and giving the Phoenix their 26th victory of the year.
Senior starter Nate Young, making his first start at home in his final home series as a member of the Phoenix, was credited with the win after giving up five runs on four hits, walking three and striking out three in five innings of work.
“I felt good, up until about that fifth inning,” Young said. “It was cool to get a start in - first one in my time here - being a senior here. The last home series, it was definitely a cool experience.”
On the other hand, Bulldogs starter C.K. Irby went three innings giving up eight Phoenix runs on nine hits and walking five. It was Irby’s second no-decision in thirteen starts this year, which Kennedy considers a credit to his player’s patience at the plate.
“We wanted him to throw strikes. He was coming on short rest,” Kennedy said. “So usually in that situation you want to try and work some counts and see how much energy he has, see how strong he is. I thought he'd throw some good hard fastballs, but they were up in the zone and our kids did a really good job of being disciplined and drawing some walks and stretching out that pitch count.”
After Young gave up two runs in the top of the first on two walks, a Christian Durdaller double and a McGavin groundout, the Phoenix responded with three in the bottom of the inning on a passed ball and sophomore Casey Jones’ single, which, according to Kinsella was important in settling down their inexperienced starter.
“We kept saying it was Nate’s first start so to give him back the lead after he had a rough first really allowed him to settle down and pitch with some confidence,” Kinsella said. “He knew that we had his back and knew that he didn’t have to worry about keeping them at zero because we would have some runs for him if he needed them.”
The Phoenix then exploded for six more runs in the bottom of the fourth, three coming on Kinsella’s home run to right-center, his 14th of the year and 32nd in his career, both of which are third in program history. The Phoenix then added their other runs on a Bulldogs error, a balk and a wild pitch.
Samford didn’t falter, scoring three runs in the top of the fifth on a tiring Young to cut the Phoenix lead to 9-5. After Bulldogs shortstop Austin Allsion walked, second baseman Zeth Stone tripled to right-center to score Allsion. Center fielder Phillip Ervin and Irby followed with back-to-back singles to plate two more. The Bulldogs added one more in the top of the seventh on a junior Antonio Alvarez's throwing error and a MacDonald fielder’s choice that could’ve resulted in an inning-ending double play had his throw to second been on target.
Kinsella ripped a single into right-center in the bottom of the seventh to extend the Phoenix lead to four, only to see MacDonald give up two runs in the next two innings before finally shutting the door in the ninth. MacDonald’s outing, while not spectacular, was enough to get the job done.
“Both of those guys threw multiple innings and it was good to see them both throw strikes and compete and give us a chance to win,” Kennedy said. “We end up giving up eight runs, and we’re not proud of that, but we made pitches in the right situations and that gave us a win.”
The win gives the Phoenix a better opportunity to win their final home series of the year before heading into postseason play, an important step for a team that has struggled to win multiple games in a series, especially against Southern Conference foes.