Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
Oakland, CA -- After an offensive outburst led to a win in the opening game of Friday's doubleheader with Laney College co-tenant Holy Names, the Academy of Art University baseball team failed to capitalize on late chances in the second game, earning a split on the day. The Knights used a five-run seventh inning to push past the Hawks in the 8-2 opener, while they stranded the go-ahead run in the sixth and seventh before falling 4-3 to HNU in extra innings in the closing contest.

The Knights got on the board early against Hawks starter Jayse Bannister, as Tino Leite led off the bottom of the first with a walk. Brackenridge followed with his first hit of the day, a double that put runners on second and third. Ryan Ramirez walked to load the bases, and Stefen Henderson hit a ground ball to second to get on the board. Myles Babitt followed that with a bunt single that scored another run, and the Knights were up 2-0 after the first.

ART U would add one more in the bottom of the second, starting when Kevin Decker hit a single. Joey Marchini walked, and Cody Edmunds followed with a bunt single to load the bases again. Leite grounded into a double play, but the Knights had another run to go up 3-0 at that point.

That would be enough for Garabedian, who worked his way through five innings of solid work, scattering three hits and five walks and giving up two unearned runs. Holy Names got one in the fourth inning when Garabedian walked Austin Wood to score a run, but it was only possible when Dom Morbidella reached on an error. They had another in the fifth when a Ben Gamba groundout scored Dan Catalan, who was in scoring position due to an error on Garabedian earlier, but the Knights held on to a 3-2 lead after five.

Bannister settled down for the Hawks, and even though the Knights got runners in scoring position in each of the first five innings, they couldn't bring anyone around from the second until the seventh. He walked Edmunds to lead off the inning, and Leite followed with a double. A single by Brackenridge added the first run of the inning and also knocked Bannister out of the game.

But with the new pitcher Adam Crossman on the mound, the Knights didn't stop there. Ramirez hit an infield single that scored a run. Henderson had a bunt single to score another run, and then Myles Babitt had the big hit, a single through the right side to score two runs. Kevin Decker added an RBI double down the right field line to make it a five-run inning and a six-run lead, and the Knights held on to win by that margin, 8-2.

Five Urban Knights had multi-hit days, led by Brackenridge (3-for-5 2B, 2R, RBI) and Decker (3-for-4, RBI, 2B, R). Babitt had two hits and three RBIs, while Henderson (2-for-5) and Leite (2-for-4). Garabedian (2-8) picked up the win and also lowered his ERA to 3.31 on the year, while Wade Broadstreet pitched three scoreless innings in relief. Ryan Donahoe also picked up an inning of shutout ball for ART U. Daniel Catalan was 3-for-5 with a run scored for Holy Names.


Nate Gercken took the hill in the second game for Academy of Art, and had an up and down first couple of innings. After using only four pitches to get through the top half of the first, the Hawks sent six batters to the plate in the second and scored two runs, the first on a single by Ryan Souza and the second on a ground out by Matt Smith. Gercken used nine pitches to get through the top three in the batting order again in the third inning, but needed two strikeouts and a come backer to get out of the fourth with the Knights still down 2-0.

ART U evened the score in their half of the fourth, though, jumpstarted by Ryan Ramirez hitting his second home run of the year, both against Holy Names, to cut the lead in half. Myles Babitt walked and then advanced to second on a balk before Dante Redhead came up big with a single to tie the game up at 2-2.

The Knights would go ahead in the fifth when Joey Marchini led off with a walk. He went to second on a bunt and third on a groundout, and Brackenridge extended his hitting streak to ten games on the next pitch, knocking in a run with an RBI single. But HNU would come back in the next inning, starting with a leadoff double. A couple batters later, an infield single on a slow hit to short would score the run that made it 3-3.

That began the Knights frustration, as they were unable to capture that magic from the first game of driving runners in. They loaded the bases with nobody out in their half of the sixth, but nobody came across. Again in the seventh, they got a leadoff double from Leite but no one after him could knock him in. And after the Hawks scored in the eighth on an RBI single, the Urban Knights threatened to re-tie the game, getting two runners on before Leite struck out looking to end the game.

Redhead was 3-for-3 with a walk and an RBI for ART U in the loss, while Brackenridge was 1-for-3, picking up a hit in his final at-bat to extend his streak. Wade Broadstreet picked up the loss in relief, allowing just the one run that put the Hawks ahead. These two teams will have Saturday off before playing another doubleheader on Sunday.