No 6 Baseball Completes Comeback Against Johnson

ATHENS, Tenn.- The sixth-ranked baseball team returned to Athens Insurance Stadium on Friday. TWU hosted the Johnson University Royals in an Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) game, the first game of a three-game series.

Through the first two innings, neither team scored a run. Johnson broke the scoreless streak with a run in the top of the third. In the bottom of the third, the Bulldogs responded. 

Blake Hubble opened the offensive half of the inning with a walk. Hubble was not on base for long as Marco Martinez blased a ball over the center field wall to allow both of them to do their home run trots while giving Tennessee Wesleyan a 2-1 lead. Jack Stevens came to the plate and hit a ball to left field for a double, moving to third on an error. Though Cayle Webster grounded out, Stevens was able to score on off the distraction, moving the lead to 3-1. Kruise Newman and Evan Magill both followed with singles, and each moved a base on an error. Cody McGill made the score 4-1 as Newman scored on his RBI ground out.

After Johnson cut the lead to one run in the top of the fourth, the team got back one of the runs in the bottom of the fourth. Braxton Turner hit ball to deep center field, using his speed to get to third on the hit. A fielder's choice on Steven's at-bat allowed Turner to score, giving the Bulldogs a 5-3 lead at the conclusion of the fourth. In the fifth and sixth innings, Johnson scored to overtake the lead, moving ahead 6-5 on the scoreboard, and then 7-5 after a run in the top of the eighth. 

With only a few chances left to comeback, TWU made their move in the bottom of the eighth inning. Magill started with a walk, and courtesy-runner Aiden McClary moved to second on a McGill single. Two flyouts with a Turner walk sandwiched between, the second flyout turning into a sacrifice fly by Hubble as McClary scored off of it to cut the deficit to one run. The With two outs in the inning, Martinez came to the plate and hit a ball to center field. Martinez got to second on the hit while McGill and Turner scored to give the Bulldogs an 8-7 lead they went on to win by.

Martinez finished with four RBIs in the game. Sam Rochard got the pitching win, finishing with four strikeouts. Jake Sergent also had four strikeouts while Christian Delashmit and Gage Vailes each had two strikeouts.

Tennessee Wesleyan (10-9, 5-5 AAC) will finish the three-game series against Johnson on Sunday with a doubleheader. The first game is set to begin at 1:00 p.m.