Senior Alex Ryan (Lake Mills, Wis. / Lakeside Lutheran) smoked two home runs to provide a highlight, but the Valparaiso University baseball team dropped the middle game of this weekend’s series at No. 21 Campbell 13-4 on Saturday in Buies, Creek, N.C. Two big innings by a potent Camel offense proved to be the difference in the game as the hosts bookended their offensive day with big frames, scoring six times in the first and five in the eighth.

How It Happened

• Campbell jumped in front by scoring six in the opening inning. The first seven Camels to come to the plate all reached base in an inning where the hosts batted around.
• After Valpo starter Adam Guazzo (Hunley, Ill. / Huntley) rebounded by retiring the side in order in the second, Ryan led off the third with a 400-foot shot to left to cut the lead to five at 6-1.
• After the first seven Campbell batters reached base in the opening inning, Guazzo sent down the next 10 in succession. However, the Camels tallied a run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 7-1.
• In the top of the fifth, Ryan ripped his second home run of the game, this time a two-run shot that traveled 392 feet to left. That cut the lead to four at 7-3.
• Campbell’s Lawson Harrill led off the fifth with a solo shot to extend the lead to 8-3 and spell the end of the day for Guazzo.
• The bases were full of Beacons in the top of the sixth, but Valpo did not score and stranded the maximum. Valpo had another chance in the top of the seventh with men at the corners and one away, but a strikeout and a sharp line drive that was caught on the left side of the infield squashed the chance and kept it 8-3 Camels.
• Valpo moved a step closer in the top of the eighth when Kaleb Hannahs (West Terre Haute, Ind. / West Vigo) lifted a sacrifice fly that made it 8-4.
• After Guazzo departed in the fifth, head coach Brian Schmack turned the ball over to Grant Jablonski (Mishawaka, Ind. / Mishawaka), who did not allow a run over his first three innings of work but allowed a leadoff home run to begin the bottom of the eighth to the final batter he faced, a blast that made it a 9-4 game. In total, he went three plus innings and allowed one run on four hits, one walk and two strikeouts.
• Campbell added four more runs in the eighth after Jablonski’s exit (five total in that inning) to make it 13-4, which stood as the game’s final.

Inside the Game

• Ryan’s home runs were his first and second of the season and the fourth and fifth of his collegiate career.
• Ryan had Valpo’s second multi-homer game of the season, joining Kevin Denty on March 1 at Elon.
• Hannahs extended his season-long on-base streak to 17.
• The hit column was fairly close as the Camels outhit the Beacons 10-7.
• Valpo continued to make opposing pitchers work by drawing seven walks, the team’s seventh straight game with seven or more. However, a Valpo staff that ranked among the national leaders in walks per nine innings entering this weekend continued to have an atypical weekend in terms of command, issuing seven walks on Saturday.
• For the second straight game, Valpo had activity on the base paths throughout, stranding 12 base runners while Campbell left only five on base. Valpo has stranded a dozen or more in six of the last seven games. 
• Ryan was joined with multiple hits by Kade Reinerston (Huxley, Iowa / Ballard Community) and Carson Husmann (Hanna, Ind. / South Central [Bradley]).  

Up Next

Valpo (7-10) will close the series at No. 21 Campbell on Sunday at noon CT in Buies Creek, N.C. No video feed will be available, but a live radio broadcast courtesy of Campbell Athletics will help fans follow along. Links to live coverage will be available on ValpoAthletics.com.