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Box Score 3 BLUE MOUNTAIN, Miss. – IU Southeast head coach Ben Reel became the program's career wins leader with a 7-3 win over Blue Mountain College on Friday.
In his 14th season as IU Southeast head coach, Reel earned his 478th victory, passing Rick Parr.
The seventh-ranked Grenadiers (3-6) struck with a run in each of the first two innings. In the top of the first, Trevor Campbell singled , stole second, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brody Tanksley.
IU Southeast added to the lead in the second when Kase Warner reached on an error and moved to third on a single by Ray Aponte. A sacrifice fly by Tyler Mills drove in Warner.
The Toppers (4-3) cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning. After a single and an error put runners at the corners, Josh Smith doubled to score Kelton Hall.
With no outs and a runner at third, starter Hunter Kloke was able to record a fly out to center, a strikeout and another flyout to limit the damage.
The Toppers took the lead in the bottom of the fourth. After a single by Smith, a RBI triple by Garrett Riggs tied the game and a RBI single by Raymond Gonzalez gave Blue Mountain the lead.
IU Southeast used a four-run seventh inning to take the lead for good. Trevor Campbell doubled to score Tyler Mills, who had reached on a single. After a Brandon Boxer single, Tanksley doubled to drive in the pair. Marco Romero followed with an RBI double to extend the lead to 6-3.
Kloke worked around a leadoff double in the bottom of the inning and was helped by a RBI single by Boxer, his fourth hit of the game in the top of the eighth.
In the bottom of the inning, Kloke got a strikeout for the first out of the inning, but a double and a walk started signs of late rally.
He proceeded to record a flyout by Smith and a popout by Riggs to end the threat. Kloke worked eight innings and allowed three runs while walking a batter and striking out six.
Conner Fries allowed a leadoff single in the ninth but retired the next three batters he faced to secure the win.
Brandon Boxer went 4-for-5 with a run scored and a RBI. Brody Tanksley was 3-for-4 with three RBI and Trevor Campbell and Marco Romero each had two hits and knocked in a run.
The top four batters in the IU Southeast lineup recorded 11 of the Grenadiers' 14 hits in the contest.
IU Southeast concludes the series tomorrow with a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
