No. 3 Baseball Sweeps Final Regular Season Doubleheader

Laurinburg, N.C.- The baseball team, ranked No. 3 in the NAIA, went on the road for the final time in the regular season. The team's final Appalachian Athletic Conference series against the St. Andrews University Knights began with a doubleheader on Thursday. 

Game One: 

In the first inning, Carson Ford opened with a walk, moving to third quickly with two stolen bases. Dan Sayre also walked to start the game, stealing second to move into scoring position. Both scored on a Marco Martinez single. Martinez eventually made his way around the bases, scoring on a passed ball to make the lead 3-0. St. Andrews cut into the lead with two runs over the next two innings. 

The team got one of the runs back in the third inning. Parker Stinnett walked and stole second. A single by Braxton Turner moved Stinnett to third and he scored on a throwing error on Turner's stolen base to make the score 4-2.  

In the seventh inning, the Bulldogs scored three more runs. Andre Tarver and Cayle Webster both walked to open the inning. A double down to left field scored Tarver to make the lead three runs. Evan Magill gave the team their sixth and seventh run of the game when his single scored both Webster and McGill, making the score 7-2. St. Andrews scored a run in the bottom of the eighth to make the final score 7-3 in favor of the TWU. 

Martinez and Magill both had two RBIs in the game. Gage Vailes got the pitching win, striking out five batters in six innings. Jake Sergent had two strikeouts in two innings. Kyle Bloor pitched one inning.  

Game Two: 

Game two played out to be a much close game. Like the first inning of game one, Ford got on base with a walk and stole a base to get to second, eventually scoring on a Martinez RBI to give the team a 1-0 advantage. Also like the first game, St. Andrews scored in the second inning, tying the game 1-1. The next score did not occur until the fifth inning. 

The score went toward the Bulldogs' score. Magill opened the inning with a walk and moved to second on a Preston Welchel hit by pitch. Each runner moved a base on Ford's sacrifice bunt and Magill scored on a fielder's choice on Martinez's at-bat to give Tennessee Wesleyan a 2-1 lead. No runs were scored in the remainder of the game, giving the Bulldogs the sweep of the doubleheader with the 2-1 win. 

Martinez brought both runs in. Sam Rochard got the win, striking out eight batters in 4.1 innings. Carter Gannaway pitched 1.2 innings and picked up two strikeouts while Bloor earned a save in pitching one inning and striking out two batters. 

The final series for the Bulldogs (39-7, 28-1 AAC) ends with a single game on Friday. The game is set to begin at 2:00 p.m.