Arnold’s clutch hit pushes Storm over Beloit

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Kolton Arnold capped off his stellar day with a walk-off RBI single on Thursday to give the Simpson baseball team a 10-9 win over Beloit.

The Storm (4-1) had Zach Hollingsworth on second and Arnold was up to bat tied at 9-9 when he singled to right field to score Hollingsworth to lift the squad to their first 4-1 start since 2011.

Simpson hustled out a 4-0 advantage after the first two innings of play. The offense tallied five hits and force two errors to help go out in front.

The Buccaneers (3-3) wasted no time in jumping out in front and tacked on four runs in the third to tie and two more in the fourth to go up 6-4.

Arnold put a stop to that and changed the momentum with a solo home run to left field in the fourth. Truman Schmitt followed with a single and Brandon Urias pushed him to third with a double and a pass ball later the game was tied at 6-6. Nathan Carlin hit one out of the infield for a RBI single to regain the lead and Brady Held had a RBI groundout in the inning as well.

Beloit added three more runs over the course of the next four innings and the Storm were down 9-8 going into the bottom of the eighth. Keegan Perez hit a game-tying RBI single in the inning.

Arnold, Hollingsworth and Schmitt all had three hits in the contest, with Arnold and Schmitt each having two RBIs. Schmitt is first in the American Rivers Conference with a .684 batting clip and is tied for second with 13 hits.

Tanner Jansen earned his second win of the young season. He came in relief to close out the last three innings and had three strikeouts. Tom Kunzer started on the hill for the Storm.

Simpson finished the Florida trip with a doubleheader tomorrow against Crown. First pitch is slated for 8:30 a.m. (CT) at Osceola Heritage Park Field No. 4.