Outlaws Fall to Miners; Win Streak Snapped

By TY

Box Score | Season Stats | Updated Standings

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Nashville Outlaws had its season-high four-game winning streak snapped on Saturday when they fell to West Virginia by a score of 10-6 at Faith & Family Night at Hawkins Field. The Outlaws (21-20 overall, 7-6 2nd half) continued to swing the hot bats Saturday as they combined for 15 hits while scoring only six runs.

After jumping out to big leads on West Virginia the first two games of the series, the Miners had their way on Saturday as they got out to a 7-0 lead before Kevin Smith (LSU-Shreveport) launched his first home run of the summer, a three-run shot into the right-field bleachers to get the Outlaws within four at 7-3.

Greg Bachman (Austin Peay) led Nashville with a four-hit night to raise his average to a season-best .320. Bryan Johns (Vanderbilt) continued his hot-bat with a three more hits and a run scored.

Johnny Amann (Judson), Jack Lupo and Smith all had two hits apiece in Nashville's 15-hit offensive attack. Smith led the way in the RBI department, driving in three, while Amann had two.

Daniel Palo (MTSU) allowed seven runs (six earned) on just five hits while walking four and hitting two in 2.2 innings to fall to 2-3 on the summer.

Steven Murray (TCU) allowed three runs (all unearned) on four hits in three innings of middle relief while Lee Thompson (St. Catherine College) struck out three and allowed just one hit in 3.1 innings of scoreless relief.

Despite the loss on Saturday, the Outlaws have started to gel at the plate and their numbers show that. In three games against the second-place Miners, the Outlaws pounded out 42 hits and scored 27 runs.

Besides the game, musical performances by SonicFlood and Denver Bierman and the Mile High Orchestra and a terrific postgame fireworks show highlighted the second Faith & Family Night of the summer. A crowd of 2,239 attended the day's events at Hawkins Field.

Nashville will now host first-place division leader Terre Haute for two games, starting tomorrow (Sunday) night at 6 p.m.

To secure tickets log onto www.nashvilleoutlaws.com or call the Nashville Outlaws at 615-346-9405.

Outlaws Win Fourth Straight, Top Miners 6-2

By TY

Box Score | Saturday's Faith & Family Night

Bryan Johns’ three-run double with two-outs in the bottom of the seventh broke open a 2-1 game as the Outlaws defeated West Virginia, 6-2 in front of 1,229 fans at Hawkins Field on Friday.

Friday’s win is the fourth straight for the Outlaws, tying a franchise record. Nashville improved to 21-19 overall, including 7-5 in the second half of the season. The loss drops West Virginia to 23-20 overall and 8-7 in the second half.

The Outlaws got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first when they took advantage of two Miner errors that allowed Kevin Smith to score.

From that point on, the game settled into a a classic pitcher’s dual between Nashville’s Taylor Haydel (Western Kentucky) and West Virginia’s Jake Peeling up until the seventh inning. In the seventh, Peeling lost his control and hit three consecutive Outlaws with two outs to load the bases for Johns. Following a conference on the mound, West Virginia elected to stay with Peeling and Johns and the Outlaws made them pay two pitches later when Johns’ drove a fastball to right-center for a bases clearing double and giving Nashville 5-1 lead at that point.

Before the seventh inning, both teams had struggled to come up with a key hit in a timely situation as each team grounded into two double plays.

Haydel allowed just one run on three hits in a six-inning no-decision. Haydel struck out two and walked one while throwing 74 pitches.

Matt Fitton (Sacred Heart) earned the win, allowing one run on one hit with two walks and a strikeout in two-innings of relief.

Jon Ivie (Belmont) threw a scoreless ninth to improve his scoreless innings streak to 18.1 innings. Ivie is 2-0 with a league-high seven saves.

Offensively, a day after Nashville had six players record multi-hit games, Johns (Vanderbilt) was the only Outlaw to accomplish the feat on Friday, going 2-for-4 with 3 RBI. In his last four games, Johns is hitting .474 (9-for-19) with 8 RBI, 3 doubles, and four runs scored.

The Outlaws will close out the series tomorrow night with the Miners with first pitch slated for 6:05 p.m.

Tomorrow night’s contest will be the second Faith & Family Night of the summer. Saturday’s festivities are highlighted by SonicFlood and Denver Bierman of Denver & the Mile High Orchestra performance and postgame fireworks. The concert will start at 4:30 p.m. at Hawkins Field. To learn more about Saturday's festivities, click here.

Outlaws Dismantle Miners for 3rd straight Win

By TY

Box Score

The Nashville Outlaws brought heavy lumber to yard on Thursday as they pounded out a franchise record 22 hits en route to a 15-4 win over West Virginia to win its third straight game at Hawkins Field. A season-high 11 different Outlaws recorded a hit Thursday, including six with multi-hit games.

West Virginia (23-19) arrived to Hawkins Field riding a six-game winning streak and tied for the Eastern Division lead before getting knocked around for 22 hits.

The game got out of hand quick for the Miners as the Outlaws jumped out to an early 9-1 lead after just three innings. Nashville recorded 13 hits in the first three innings, including seven during a five-run third.

Holding a 9-1 lead after three innings, Nashville would tack on five more runs in the next two innings to take a comfortable 14-4 lead after five complete. By the end of the fifth inning, the Outlaw lineup had tallied 18 hits already while the top of the Outlaw order had already batted five times.

Nashville also had a franchise record four guys with at least three hits in the same game.

Leadoff man Johnny Amann (Judson) led the Outlaws with a perfect 4-for-4 night with a walk and run scored. Amann is hitting .556 (10-for-18) over his last four games and has raised his batting average to a season-high .301.

Bryan Johns (Vanderbilt) recorded his second three-hit game in four days, going 3-for-5 with 3 RBI, a double and run scored on Thursday out of the No. 2 hole.

Andrew Brouillette drove in a team-high four runs with a 3-for-5 night, including a two-run triple in the third while Sam Dove (Georgia Tech) went 3-for-6 with an RBI and run scored.

Jared Fancher (TCU) went 2-for-5 with three runs scored and two runs batted in while Doug Joyce (Florida International) went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and an RBI.

PJ Francescon (Trevecca Nazarene) made his third start of the season for the Outlaws Thursday, allowing three runs on five hits in four innings of work before leaving the game with an undisclosed injury.

College teammate Craig Stem came into relieve Francescon in the fourth and was very efficient on the mound. Stem (1-1) allowed just one run on one hit in a season-high five innings of relief to earn his first win as an Outlaw.

Fans at Hawkins Field were also treated to some fantastic defensive plays during the slugfest. Jack Lupo (Vanderbilt), Brouillette and Fancher all made web-gem, highlight diving catches Thursday.

With the win the Outlaws improve to 20-19 overall, including 6-5 in the second half of the season.

The Outlaws will play the Miners again tomorrow at 6 p.m. at Hawkins Field.

For tickets log onto www.nashvilleoutlaws.com or call the Nashville Outlaws at 615-866-1040.

Outlaws storm back to beat Miners

By TY

Box Score

BECKLEY, W. Va. – Trailing 2-0 heading into the eighth, the Nashville Outlaws staged its biggest comeback of the season by scoring six runs in over the final two innings to knock-off West Virginia, 6-2 at Linda K. Epling Stadium on Sunday.

With the win, the Outlaws clinched the series (took two out of three) over the Miners while improving to 7-8 overall. After losing four of five games from June 9-13, the Outlaws have now four of its last five games dating back to June 15.

The weekend series win over West Virginia (7-8) concludes a solid week for the Outlaws, who went 4-2 on the week, including a pair of road wins at Richmond on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Nashville trailed 2-0 heading into the eighth as they had five hits and no runs to show for off West Virginia starter Andrew Smith who struck out five in five shutout innings.

The Outlaws got to the Miner bullpen in the eighth though when they sent nine guys to the plate in a 5-run inning. Nashville was aided by two costly West Virginia errors in the inning that led to two unearned runs.

With Nashville clinging to a 5-2 lead heading into the ninth, the Outlaws added one more insurance run in their last at-bat when Greg Bachman (Austin Peay) drove in Sam Dove (Georgia Tech) from third on a two-out RBI single.

For the third time in three days, the Outlaws got another solid start out of its starting pitcher. On Sunday, Daniel Palo (Middle Tennessee) allowed two runs on four hits in 6.1 innings with five strikeouts and three walks to earn the no-decision.

Steven Murray (TCU) picked up the win after throwing 1.1 innings of no-hit scoreless relief while closer Jon Ivie (Belmont) threw a perfect-ninth to earn his league-leading fourth save of the season.

Offensively Sunday, Doug Joyce (Florida International) continued his hot-bat, going 3-for-5 with 2 RBI, a double and run scored. Jack Lupo (Vanderbilt) went 2-for-4 while Johnny Amann (Judson) drove in two-runs on an RBI single in the eighth.

The Outlaws lineup will receive some immediate depth this week as Vanderbilt’s Drew Fann and Bryan Johns are slated to make their Outlaw debuts this week against Hannibal.

Nashville will return to friendly confines of Hawkins Field on Monday when they host Hannibal Cavemen for two games (Monday and Tuesday). Both games will start at 7 p.m.

Click here to order tickets.

photo above by W. Dayton Whittle

Outlaws Even Series, Crush Miners 9-2

By TY

Box Score

BECKLY, W.Va. – A day after scoring just one run on three hits, the Nashville Outlaws jumped out to an early 6-0 lead after one inning and got a great outing from starting pitcher Taylor Haydel en route to a 9-2 win over West Virginia at Linda K Epling Stadium on Saturday.

Haydel (Western Kentucky) won his first game in two starts, allowing two runs, one earned on five hits in six-innings on Saturday. Haydel struck out five and walked two while facing 29 batters.

Left-hander Matt Fitton (Sacred Heart) was dominant out of the bullpen in relief of Haydel, allowing just one-hit in three-innings of scoreless relief in what was his fifth appearance of the season.

Nashville (6-8) got out to an early 6-0 lead when they scored six runs on four hits while taking advantage of one Miner error in the top of the first. Johnny Amann (Judson), Greg Bachman (Austin Peay), Andrew Brouillette (LSU-Shreveport) and Jack Lupo (Vanderbilt) all had hits in the inning. Bachman’s two-RBI one-out double was the key hit in the inning.

The Outlaws added two more runs in the fourth when Lupo and Amann scored on a Doug Joyce fielders choice and a Kevin Smith double to make it 8-1 in favor of Nashville.

West Virginia added their last run of the game in the fifth while the Outlaws closed out the scoring in the eighth when Sam Dove scored on a Daniel Palo (Middle Tennessee) fielders choice.

Lupo and Smith led Nashville at the plate with two hits apiece, while Sam Dove (Georgia Tech) and Billy Rumpke III (Columbia) each scored two runs.

Nashville will close out its three-game road series with the Miners (6-7) on Sunday at 2:05 p.m. at Linda K. Epling Stadium.

photo by W. Dayton Whittle

Outlaws Fall to Miners in Pitchers Dual

By TY

Box Score

Navery Moore (Vanderbilt) was sharp in his season debut for Nashville but the Outlaws got only three hits of their own over nine innings as the Miners edged the Outlaws 2-1 at Linda K Epling Stadium on Friday night.

Friday night’s game was a pitcher’s dual between two starting right-handers, Moore and West Virginia’s starter Jake Peeling.

Moore allowed just one earned run and five hits in 5.2 innings while striking out seven and walking two for Nashville. Peeling, a redshirt sophomore at Virginia Tech was on top of his game on Friday, allowing one run (zero earned) on two hits in 6.1 innings of work. Peeling struck out 10 of the 23 Outlaw batters he faced while walking four.

The Outlaws (5-8) jumped out to an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first when they scored one run on one hit while taking advantage of Miner error. Billy Rumpke III (Columbia) led off the first with a walk and than advanced to second on a Sam Dove (Georgia Tech) single. After stealing third, Rumpke crossed the plate on a error by the Miner first-baseman.

Nashville led 1-0 through five complete innings before West Virginia scored two runs on three hits in the bottom of the sixth, to take a 2-1 lead.

Matt Marsh (Austin Peay) came into relieve Moore and threw the final 2.1 innings of the game. Marsh struck out two and allowed two hits in 2.1 innings of scoreless relief.

Doug Joyce (Florida International), Andrew Brouillette (LSU-Shreveport), and Dove were the only Outlaws to record hits on Friday.

Nashville will meet West Virginia in game two of a three-game series with the Miners at 6:05 p.m.