Dallas Baptist hits 3 HRs, beats Rhode Island 6-2 at Baton Rouge Regional

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Chayton Krauss, Keaton Grady and Luke Heefner each hit a home run on Friday night to help Dallas Baptist beat Rhode Island 6-2 at the Baton Rouge Regional.

Micahel Dattalo led off the first inning with a single and Nathan Humpreys followed with an RBI double before Krauss hit a two-out two-run shot off Trystan Levesque (8-2) and Grady hit the next pitch over the wall in left to give the No. 2 seed Patriots (41-16) a 4-0 lead.

Dallas Baptist, making its 11th consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance (the event was canceled in 2020 due to COVID), plays top-seed LSU and Rhode Island takes on No. 4 seed Arkansas-Little Rock in loser-out game on Saturday.

Ryan Borgerg (9-4) pitched five innings and gave up two runs on five hits with six strikeouts. Luke Pettitte — the son of Andy Pettitte, who won five World Series titles with the New York Yankees — threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings and earned his second save of the season.

Anthony DePino drew a two-out walk and scored on a single by Reece Moroney in the third and hit a solo shot in the fifth for No. 3 seed Rhode Island (38-20).

Poole and Kraus two consecutive two-out walks before Grady hit an RBI single up the middle to cap the scoring in the eighth.

The Rams are making their third NCAA Tournament appearance in program history and their first since 2016.

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AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports