The Valparaiso University baseball team will play a rubber match on Sunday in Birmingham after host UAB evened the three-game series with an 8-2 triumph on Saturday afternoon. The left side of the Valpo infield paced the offense, as freshman Kaleb Hannahs (West Terre Haute, Ind. / Terre Haute) and senior Damon Jorgensen (Blair, Neb. / Blair) notched two hits apiece.

How It Happened

• Trent Turzenski (Burlington, Wis. / Burlington) started on the mound for Valpo and yielded two runs on three hits over four innings. He did issue five walks and hit two batters, but kept the damage to two runs as the Blazers pushed across single tallies in the third and fourth frames.
• Nolan Lebamoff (Fort Wayne, Ind. / Carroll [Kankakee CC]) took over on the bump in the fifth inning. He did not allow an earned run over his two innings, but the Blazers tacked on a pair of unearned tallies in the sixth to widen the lead to 4-0.
• Nathan Chasey (Ames, Iowa / Gilbert [Indian-Hills CC]) made a strong first impression in his Valpo debut as the junior college transfer struck out the side in the bottom of the seventh, his lone inning of work.
• Hannahs drove in a run with a single to short in the eighth, cutting the deficit to three and putting Valpo on the board.
• UAB broke it open with a four-run bottom of the eighth, enlarging the gap to seven at 8-1.
• Jonathan Temple (Turlock, Calif. / Turlock [Modesto JC]) cracked a single up the middle to drive in one in the top of the ninth, accounting for the final run of the day.

Inside the Game

• Hannahs enjoyed his first multi-hit day in a Valpo uniform in the second game of his career, while Jorgensen had four multi-hit outputs last season and five the year prior, making this the 10^th of his career.
• Temple has driven in a run in each of the season’s first two games, joining Jeremy Drudge (3) as Valpo players with multiple RBIs through the first two games.
• Hannahs, Brady Renfro (Antigo, Wis. / Antigo) and Alex Thurston (Fowler, Ind. / Benton Central) all picked up their first collegiate hits on Saturday as freshmen accounted for four of the team’s eight knocks.
• Valpo outhit the Blazers 8-7.

Up Next

Valpo (1-1) and UAB (1-1) will close the three-game series on Sunday at 1 p.m. in Birmingham. The game will air on C-USA TV (subscription only) with links to live video and stats available on ValpoAthletics.com.