No. 2 Baseball Takes First Game From Bluefield

Bluefield, Va.- The baseball team, ranked No. 2 in the NAIA, began an eight-game road trip with an Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) series on Saturday. The team faced the Bluefield University Rams in a single game. 

Carson Ford and Dan Sayre opened the game with singles to get on base. An error on Marco Martinez's fielder's choice allowed Sayre to reach second and Ford to become the first run of the game. Sayre became the second run of the game on Andre Tarver's RBI single. A sacrifice bunt by Cayle Webster moved each runner a base, and Braxton Turner gave the team a 4-0 lead with his two-RBI single scoring both Martinez and Tarver. Bluefield took some of the breathing room away with three runs in the third inning. 

Tennessee Wesleyan extended its lead from the fifth to the eighth inning. In the fifth inning, Cayle Webster, who reached on a double and moved to third on a Parker Stinnett pop-up, scored on Evan Magill's RBI single.  

In the sixth inning, Ford scored the sixth run of the game after getting on base with a single, moving to second and third on an error, and scoring on a Webster RBI single. The seventh saw two runs come across home plate for the Bulldogs in the form of a Magill two-run home run, bringing Stinnett home as well to make the score 8-3.  

Magill recorded his fourth RBI of the game in the eighth inning when Braxton Turner's courtesy runner Aiden McClary scored on his single. Cade Bochlter was responsible for the 10th run of the game when his single to center field brought Magill home, helping the team win the first game of the series by a final score of 10-4. 

Magill led the team with four RBIs while Tuner added two RBIs. Jake Sergent was credited with the pitching win, striking out eight batters in 6.1 innings of work. 

The series between the Bulldogs (25-6, 16-0 AAC) and the Rams concludes with a doubleheader on Sunday. The first pitch of the doubleheader is set for 1:00 p.m.