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RedHawks fall to Campbell, beat Furman

By Grace Remington, For The Miami Student

A three-run fourth inning gave Miami University baseball a 4-3 victory over Furman University Saturday, after a 7-2 defeat to Campbell University Friday in the Fighting Camel Classic.

"We're still waiting to see what we look like," head coach Danny Hayden said. "These games are becoming increasingly important … and we didn't play well in either game."

After an early offensive surge, Campbell led 5-0 by the end of the fourth inning. Freshman outfielder Brooks Urich put the 'Hawks on the board in his second career at-bat with an RBI single that scored junior outfielder Jake Romano. Sophomore second baseman Steve Sada cut the lead to 5-2 after bringing in senior first baseman Kendall Johnson. A RedHawk throwing error allowed another Fighting Camel run in the fifth. Campbell added another run before the inning ended to seal the win.

Senior right-hander Ryan Powers took the loss for Miami.

"Sometimes you can't help the situation," senior outfielder Matt Honchel said. "We've had [ early deficits ] happen a couple times, like in the first inning. It could be our pitchers leaving the ball up in the zone, trying to find that rhythm and see where the umpire is calling … but it shows a lot of our team that we're back in the later innings and we're not getting down on ourselves."

After trailing 3-1 in the first inning Saturday, the RedHawks came out firing at the bottom of the fourth. Senior left fielder Ryan Elble doubled to left field, scoring Honchel and advancing junior shortstop Chad Sedio to third base. Junior catcher Tommy Ricciardi walked to load the bases, and Sada singled, bringing Sedio and Elble home.

"That was a huge hit," Honchel said. "Coming from a sophomore who was a freshman All-American last year, that was a huge hit to take the lead."

Sophomore righty Jacob Banks notched the win to improve to 1-2 on the season, and senior Will Schierholz closed the ninth to earn his first career save.

"That's something we have to do more of," Hayden said. "We put pressure on them to start the inning off. So we started the inning well, and then we ended the inning well. The tough part about it is we've had a few innings like that, where we'll look like a very aggressive offensive team, and then it'll go away. We were lucky we scored four runs because we had too many innings where we were just quiet offensively."

The RedHawks' season continues this weekend with a three-game series at South Carolina University. First pitch is set for 7 p.m. Friday.

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