No. 2 Baseball Sweeps Top Ten Doubleheader Against No. 8 Mobile and No. 5 GGC

Lawrenceville, Ga.- The baseball team went on the road on Saturday to play two ranked opponents. The second-ranked Bulldogs faced the No. 8 University of Mobile Rams and the No. 5 Georgia Gwinnett College Grizzlies.

vs. No. 8 Mobile:

Tennessee Wesleyan took the first lead of the game. Carson Ford and Dan Sayre hit singles while Cody McGill earned a walk to load the bases, with no outs on the board. A double play put two outs on the board but allowed Ford to score, giving the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead. Mobile tied the game in the second inning though.

TWU scored six runs over the next three innings to take control of the game. The first of the six runs came in the third inning. Andre Tarver doubled to right center field and advanced to third on a flyout on the next at-bat. Sayre brought Tarver home with a single, giving the team a one run lead. In the fourth inning, Parker Stinnett opened with a single, moving to second on a passed ball and scoring on a Braxton Turner single. Evan Magill joined Turner on base with a walk, and a sacrifice bunt by Cayle Webster advanced Turner and courtesy runner Aiden McClary a base. Tarver brought both runners in with a single, moving the score to 5-1. The final two runs of the six-run stretch came in the fifth inning.

Standing on first after a single, McGill became one of two runs as a part of a two-run bomb by Marco Martinez, giving the Bulldogs a 7-1 lead after the top of the fifth. Mobile scored a run in the bottom of the fifth to give them two runs. Tennessee Wesleyan scored one more run in the top of the ninth, a Tarver score on a Sayre RBI single, helping the Bulldogs win the game 8-4.

Sayre, Martinez, and Tarver each had two RBIs in the win while Turner added one RBI. Blake Peyton struck out eight batters in five innings of work in the pitching win.

vs. No. 5 Georgia Gwinnett:

Earlier this season, the Bulldogs and the Grizzlies played against each other in a game that went 11 innings. This game featured similar excitement seen from the team's first meeting.

Georgia Gwinnett put TWU in a hole in the first inning, scoring six runs to lead 6-0. A Preston Welchel home run with McClary standing on second as a courtesy runner for Turner cut the deficit to four runs after the second inning. Tarver made it three consecutive runs for the Bulldogs with his solo home run in the third inning, cutting the lead in half. The opponents scored two runs in the fourth to move their lead to 8-3. The game changed in the fifth inning.

Tennessee Wesleyan moved ahead 15-8 when they score 12 runs on eight hits and two errors in the fifth inning. Welchel (2), Webster (2), Tarver(2), Sayre (2), Magill (2), Martinez, and McClary all scored in the inning to bring the Bulldogs ahead by seven runs. The remainder of the game saw each team score six runs. Three of the six for TWU came in the sixth inning on Tarver's two-RBI double, scoring Welchel and McClary while Tarver scored himself on a Magill ground out. The remaining three came in the ninth when McClary scored on a passed ball and the duo of Stinnett and Welchel scored on a Tarver single. The final score read 21-14 in favor of the Bulldogs.

Tarver led the team with five RBIs to go along with four RBIs from Martinez and three each from Magill, Sayre, and Welchel. McGill also had an RBI. Carter Gannaway was credited with the win, recording five strikeouts in 4.2 innings.

The two wins moved the team's record to 22-4 overall.