No. 6 Baseball Splits DH Against CIU

COLUMBIA, S.C.- The sixth-ranked baseball team was back on the field in South Carolina to complete the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) series against Columbia International University. The two teams played a doubleheader on Saturday to finish the three-game series.

Game One:

After the second inning, TWU was trailing 1-0. After the fourth inning, the Bulldogs led and never looked back.

Marco Martinez and Cayle Webster stood on the first two bases as Daniel Stewart came to the plate. When the at-bat ended, no one was standing on base as Stewart blasted a ball over the center field wall for a three-run home run, giving the team a 3-1 lead. 

A scoring rally that continued through the seventh inning saw four runs come across in the fifth inning. Chad Picton opened the inning with a walk, moving to second on a passed ball. A hit by pitch put Blake Hubble on base, and Martinez moved both runners off base with his double. Martinez eventually scored on a passed ball, moving the score to 6-1. The score moved to 7-1 when Corbin Shaw earned a walk with the bases loaded, bringing Carson Ford to home plate.

In the sixth inning, Jack Stevens hit a single to right field to bring Hubble back to home plate, making the score 8-3. Webster made the score 10-3 with his two RBI double, bringing Stevens and Martinez home to give the team a 10-3 lead. The nine-inning game came to in an end in the seventh inning.

Hubble brought two runs across home plate with his single to left field, scoring Turner and Evan Magill. Stevens continued the scoring, bringing the run-rule into effect as his single scored Martinez and Hubble, giving the Bulldogs a lead of more than ten runs with the score being 14-3. Jacob Tolson gave the team 17 runs with his three-run homer over the left field wall, helping the team win the game 17-4 in seven innings.

Stewart, Stevens, and Tolson each had three RBIs in the game while Hubble, Martinez, and Webster each had two RBIs. Shaw finished with one RBI in the win. Daniel Davila got the pitching win, striking out 10 batters in six innings. 

Game Two:

The momentum from the first game did not carry over for the Bulldogs in the second game. Columbia International took a 3-0 lead in the first inning. TWU did not get on the board until a Shaw home run in the fifth inning, making the score 3-1. The opponents pushed the game out of reach with an 11-run sixth inning. Shaw had an RBI single in the seventh and Turner hit a grand slam in the same inning, but the team could not find the needed runs to extend the game, falling 14-6.

Turner led the offense with four RBIs while Shaw had two.

Up next for the Bulldogs (8-6, 4-2 AAC) is a home showdown with No. 8 University of the Cumberlands on Tuesday. The game between the two ranked opponents is set to begin at 2:00 p.m.