HTML BOX SCORENEWPORT NEWS, Pa. - The Bloomsburg University baseball team had an offensive explosion on Saturday evening and hammered the Golden Bears of Kutztown University, 20-1, in a shortened seven-inning contest at the Builder Invitational hosted by the Newport News Apprentice School. The Huskies have now won four straight, all at the invitational, and improved to 5-2 on the season. Kutztown dropped to 3-5 on the year.
Sophomore
Mike Warren (Garnerville, N.Y./St. Joseph Regional) was the benficiary of the offense as he went all seven innings to improve to 2-0 on the season. The righthander allowed one run on four hits while walking one and striking out six.
Sophomore
Tyler Benson (Montville, N.J./Montville Township), senior
Ryan Kirman (Little Silver, N.J./Red Bank Regional), and junior
Damin Muth (Breinigsville, Pa./Parkland) all had huge nights at the plate to pace the Huskies' offensive attack. Benson had four hits in five trips and scored five times while Kirman kept his power stroke going with two home runs and four runs batted in as part of a 3-for-4 night. It was his second multi-homer game of the young season and he leads the team with five round trippers and a dozen runs batted in through seven contests.
Muth homered for the second consecutive game and finished with a 3-for-4 night.
Bloomsburg jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Benson scored on a passed ball for the game's first run. Senior
Joey Casselberry (Eagleville, Pa./Methacton) drove home the second run with a sacrifice fly and Kirman hit a solo shot to complete the scoring.
The Huskies added a run in the second on a sacrifice fly from Muth for a 4-0 advantage.
Kutztown got a run back in the bottom of the third, but Bloomsburg scored 16 runs over the final four innings to blow the game wide open.
Five runs crossed the plate in the top of the fourth on an RBI groundout from redshirt sophomore
Austin Edgette (Exton, Pa./Downingtown East), an RBI double from Muth, a run-scoring single by Casselberry, and a two-run homer from Kirman. In the fifth, Bloomsburg added three more runs to take a 12-1 advantage. Edgette and Casselberry had RBI doubles while Kirman added a run-scoring single during the frame.
The offense was not done as it scored four more times in the top of the sixth to take a 16-1 lead. Benson drove home senior
Brian Almand (Haddon Township, N.J./Paul VI) with an RBI triple followed by a run-scoring single from Edgette. Muth then belted his second home run of the season to plate Edgette to complete the scoring.
The seventh inning saw more of the same as Bloomsburg scored four more times on RBIs from freshman
Ryan Shiffer (Toms River, N.J./Toms River South), Casselberry, redshirt freshman
Kyle Gaynor (Wyomissing, Pa./Wilson West Lawn), and freshman
TJ Backer (Stroudsburg, Pa./Stroudsburg).
All told, the Huskies finished with 20 runs on 23 hits against Kutztown pitching on Saturday night.
The Huskies and the Golden Bears will meet for the championship of the Builder Invitational on Sunday afternoon, February 28. First pitch is scheduled for 3:00 p.m.
