No. 5 Baseball Wins Home Finale Against Spartanburg Methodist

ATHENS, Tenn.- The baseball team played their final home game of the season on Tuesday. The No. 5 Bulldogs ended the home portion of their schedule with a 14-5 win against the Spartanburg Methodist College Pioneers.

In the first two innings, the teams traded leads. Tennessee Wesleyan took the first lead of the game when Chris Catalano, who got on base with a walk and moved to second on a wild pitch, scored on Kolton Reynolds' RBI single. Spartanburg Methodist took a 2-1 lead in the second inning.

The bottom half of the second inning saw the first three batters load the bases.  Devin Dixon hit a single, Cody McGill walked, and Kurtis Reid singled. Chris Catalano emptied two of the bases with his RBI single, scoring Dixon and McGill, giving the Bulldogs the final lead change of the game. Josh Shelly hit a ball to deep right-center field that brought the remaining two runners home, moving the lead to 5-2. A sacrifice fly by Daniel Stewart completed Shelly's time on base. The inning continued with Reynolds winding up on second after an error from his hit, and Shaw putting runners on the corners with his single. Kruise Newman hit a single through the right side of the infield to bring in Reynolds while a bases-loaded walk by Reid ended a seven-run inning as Shaw scored, extending the Bulldogs' lead to 8-2.

TWU added to their lead in the third inning with four more runs. After opening the inning with a double, Shelly scored on a Reynolds single. A walk by Shaw moved Reynolds to second, who scored on Newman's second single through the right side. The lead sat at 12-2 after McGill's two-RBI single that scored both Shaw and Newman.

The team picked up their final two runs in the 14-5 win in the sixth inning. A throwing error on Stewart's at-bat gave Shelly the space to score after a double while courtesy-runner Hagen Escoto scored on Newman's third RBI of the game, this time a single to left-center field.

Cameron Goffar picked up the pitching win and finished with four strikeouts. 

The schedule sends the Bulldogs (33-10) to St. Andrews University for a conference series on Friday. The series begins with a doubleheader beginning at 12:00 p.m.