Brown Holds off Memphis for First Win of 2022

Sunday, February 27

Memphis, Tenn.

1:00 PM ET

Brown University

1-2

Memphis

4-2

Brown

Memphis

Photo by: Matt Smith

Brown Holds off Memphis for First Win of 2022

2/27/2022 5:27:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The Brown baseball team picked up its first win of the season, closing out the third and final game of their season-opening series by holding off Memphis for a 7-6 victory on Sunday afternoon. The Bears jumped in front in the first inning and never trailed in the contest, building a five-run lead in the middle innings before holding off the Tigers' late rally.

INSIDE THE SCORE

Juniors Ryan Marra and Jacob Burley clubbed back-to-back home runs as part of a four-run sixth inning that helped Brown build a five-run lead. Marra finished the day 3-for-5 at the plate while Burley went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and a run.
Making his collegiate debut, freshman righty Santhosh Gottam pitched into the seventh inning, retiring 12 batters in a row at one point while allowing three earned runs on six hits and just one walk, and striking out three to earn the win.
Derian Morphew also had a two-hit game and made a critical diving catch in center field in the ninth inning.
Charles Crawford and Nathan Brasher scored two runs apiece.
Senior Charlie Beilenson picked up the save, pitching the final 1.2 innings.
Brown outhit Memphis 10-9, and the two teams combined for five sacrifice flies.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Crawford crushed the first pitch of the game off the center field wall for a triple, and came home two batters later on a sac fly to left by Gunner Boree to put Brown in front 1-0.
After Memphis tied the game in the second, Gottam set down 12 Tigers in a row from the second all the way until the sixth inning.
Brown retook the lead in the fifth inning, loading the bases with one out via a hit and two walks. Burley then stepped up and sent a sac fly to right field, plating Crawford with the go-ahead run.
Brown pushed an insurance run across in the sixth inning as Brasher led off by getting hit by a pitch. He then stole second, went to third on a wild pitch and came home on another wild pitch to extend the lead to 3-1.
The Tigers got the run back on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the sixth to make it a one-run game once again.
Brown padded the lead with four runs in the seventh, spurred by back-to-back homers by Burley and Marra with one out to push the lead to 5-2. Brasher followed with a single and Jackson Hipp walked, both of whom would score on a one-out throwing error to push the lead to 7-2.
Memphis got a run back in the seventh and brought the tying run to the plate with two outs, but Meyers came back with a big strikeout to end the inning.
Memphis got two more runs back on two hits in the eighth to cut it to 7-5. Beilenson came on in relief for Brown and slammed the door on the rally by inducing a huge 6-3 inning ending double play, thanks to a huge stretch by Marra at first base.
With runners on second and third with one out in the ninth, Morphew made a huge diving catch on a line drive to center field for the second out, as the runner on third tagged and scored to make it a 7-6 ballgame. Beilenson then struck out the next batter to secure Brown's first win since March 6, 2020 at Kennesaw State.

QUOTES FROM THE COACH: GRANT ACHILLES

"Santosh did a great job and we're really proud of him. He was attacking from the first pitch and dictated at bats for a majority of his outing."
"I think we saw a lot of comfort from our hitters today. It really started to show though and we had some really tough at bats. We left some opportunities on the table, but we were able to cash in enough."
"Charlie did a great job. It was not without adversity for sure, but he continued to power though and make some good pitches. It's easier to pitch when you can trust your defense and we saw that today. Our pitchers were able to stay locked in and attack the strike zone."

ON DECK
Brown will head back down south next weekend to face their second straight American Athletic Conference opponent, USF in a three game series next Friday-Sunday in Tampa.

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