No. 3 Baseball Overcomes Milligan in AAC Tournament Opener

Kingsport, Tenn.- The Appalachian Athletic Conference Tournament started for the baseball team on Wednesday. The team was the top seed in the tournament and opened play against one of the winners of the play-in game, the No. 9 seed Milligan University Buffaloes.  

Tennessee Wesleyan fell behind early in the game as Milligan scored four runs in the top of the first. The deficit did not last for long though. 

The team came roaring back in the bottom of the first, starting with a Carson Ford single. Ford scored on Marco Martinez's double and Martinez would score on a Cayle Webster single. A single by Cody McGill made Andre Tarver the third run of the game, and a throwing error on Evan Magill's fielder's choice tied the game 4-4 as Webster scored. Parker Stinnett broke the tie with his triple, bringing Magill home to give the team a one-run lead. Stinnett scored on a Braxton Turner-caused error to make the lead 6-4 at the end of the inning. 

More runs were scored for the Bulldogs in the second inning. Martinez opened the inning with a walk and made his way to third on a Tarver single. Martinez scored on Webster's ground out, moving the lead to 7-4. The lead expanded to 8-4 when Tarver scored off Magill's double.  

Magill opened the fourth inning with a triple, scoring on the next at-bat which was a Stinnett double to give the team nine runs. The team scored their 10th and 11th runs of the game in the fifth inning.  

Martinez got on base with a single and a hit by pitch on Webster's at-bat moved Martinez to second. McGill hit a single to that scored Martinez to move the lead to 10-4. The score became 11-4 on Stinnett's third RBI of the game, a single to left field that Webster scored on. 

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Ford hit a single to begin the inning. Ford stole second and a throwing error moved the base runner to third. Martinez hit a sacrifice fly to score Ford from third, extending the lead to 12-4. The game came to an end an inning early in the eighth. 

Ford hit his way to third with a triple to start the eighth inning. An error on Sayre's hit brought the team within one run of the run rule. The run rule was hit when Sayre scored on Martinez's triple, giving the team a 10-run advantage as the game ended with the Bulldogs winning 14-4 in eight innings. 

Stinnett and Martinez each had three RBIs while Webster, McGill, and Magill each had two RBIs. Jake Sergent got the pitching win, working seven innings on the mound while surrendering zero runs and striking out eight batters.  

The team returns to the field at the AAC Tournament against the No. 5 seed Union College on Thursday. The game will start at around 7:00 p.m.