BARBOURVILLE, Ky. — The Union College baseball team took the series over Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) rival Bluefield on Senior Day as Joe Gaines collected his first collegiate home run with a 21-4 victory.

With the win, The Bulldogs are now 18-26 overall and 9-18 in AAC play, and the Rams close out their season 23-21 overall on the season and 8-18 in AAC.

The Bulldogs took a huge lead in the first inning scoring eight runs off of seven hits. The standouts for the first inning were Ty Holmstrom with a two-run RBI double and Pudge Morgan with a two-run RBI single, while by Gaines, Ivan Objio, Zach Booth each drove in a run as well.

Up 8-1, Union added an additional run in the bottom of the second after Objio singled in Holmstrom.

Union continued its hot hitting, adding 10 more runs in the bottom of the third as Daniel Neal started things off with an RBI single. The Bulldogs’ big inning came from six hits, two Ram errors, and Gaines’ three-run home run.

As the Bulldogs led 19-3 at the top of the fifth, Bluefield came up to the plate with a vengeance as Joshua Magee belted a ball to deep center field and later scored to bring the score up to 19-4.

Union was not finished as the bottom of the sixth, the Bulldogs tacked on an additional two runs, as Curry Brown hit a single up the middle to score Jake Mendoza, and Gaines continued his stellar batting and collected another RBI single to score Chris Lane.

Union ended the game with 20 hits on their way to capture the series.

Gaines led the Bulldogs in going 5-for-6, three runs scored, five RBIs, and a home run. Holmstrom went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and three RBIs.

On the mound, McKinley Sewell recorded the win, pitching two and two-third innings. Senior J.D. Cozad helped the Bulldogs to the victory, striking out five batters in two and one-third innings pitched.

Up Next

The Bulldogs await to see who they will face in the first round of the AAC tournament. The tournament is being held in Kingsport, Tenn. May 2-5.