Belmont Wins OVC Baseball Regular Season Championship

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Belmont baseball celebrating OVC Regular Season Championship. Photo: Courtesy of Belmont Athletics

Belmont baseball clinched the 2022 OVC Regular Season Championship for the first time ever after taking a doubleheader against Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville on Friday, May 20.

“We talked about it all year long from the first day of classes in August, about this being a 10,000 step process,” said Belmont head coach Dave Jarvis postgame. “We’re still in the mist of this process as we stand here tonight, but they understood that and understand you can’t get to the ultimate goals we have in this season and within this program without taking those steps all along the way.”

The Bruins just edged Southeast Missouri for the title as they fell two wins short of tying the Bruins for the championship. Belmont led the OVC in pitching with an overall team ERA of 4.54 and allowing only 267 runs.

Sophomore Jalen Borders was second in the league in ERA with 3.21. Though Belmont didn’t lead the conference in batting, sophomore Guy Lipscomb led the league batting .400 and was third in hits with 82. He hit two home runs in the Bruins second win over SIUE in Friday’s doubleheader.

One aspect that helped the Bruins to its first championship was the fact that it was led by 14 juniors, seniors and grad students. Players with four to five years of experience have been the foundation for Belmont and its success.

“This group of upperclassman on this team this year have done what I charged them with and I charged them with driving the bus,” Jarvis added. “They’ve done it in a way that makes anyone associated with Belmont University proud… I think it’s just been an amazing season thus far.”

The last time Jarvis and the Bruins won a regular season title was in 2012 when the program was in the Atlantic Sun Conference. That season they won both the regular season and tournament titles. Jarvis has been with Belmont since 1998 and earned his 1,000 career win earlier this season. He later earned his 700th Belmont win in April.

The Bruins will get a bye through the first day of play and will open on Thursday against either Eastern Illinois, SIUE, or Austin Peay.

Steven Boero
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