SUWANEE, Ga. - Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference league play began last weekend as Austin College, Hendrix College, Millsaps College and Trinity University each split double headers. Millsaps continued its strong 2009 start and sits at 7-1 overall. In the Eastern Division, conference plays begins Thursday, March 12.

AROUND THE SCAC

Austin split its weekend series with Trinity to open up SCAC play, falling 9-8 in dramatic fashion in the bottom of the 11^th on Saturday before getting out to a 14-2 lead and ultimately cruising to a 14-8 win on Sunday.  On Saturday the 'Roos jumped out to a 2-1 lead early before a four run fifth put Trinity ahead 5-2, but the ‘Roos came back when Bennett Herrick knocked home a pair of runs and came around to score to knot things at 6 heading into the eighth inning.  Trinity scored twice in the inning, but John Reisig singled home two runs in the top of the tenth to force extra frames, where Trinity finally ended things with a walk-off solo shot in the bottom of the 11^th.  On Sunday the ‘Roos used a four run second inning to break what had been a 2-2 tie after one, and in the fifth Herrick brought home two runs and scored as part of a seven run inning to make it 13-2.  Herrick homered in the next inning to make it a 12 run lead, and the ‘Roos held on for the six run victory.  Herrick batted .636 with a double, a homer, five runs and six RBI over the weekend and Patrick Ray went 3-for-6 with two RBI in the series.  Reisig knocked in four runs over the weekend.  Will Chermak picked up the win on Sunday, striking out six batters and giving up four earned runs over the course of 8.0 innings of work.

Birmingham-Southern (2-2) completed its first road trip of the season with mixed results. The Panthers traveled to Atlanta to take on the Emory Eagles for a weekend set. They won game one on Saturday, 12-5, before giving up game two, 7-5, on Sunday. The Panthers scored in all but two innings on Saturday, using every offensive option open to them including two homeruns accounting for four of the Panthers' 12 on the day. Clay Malcolm went six and one-third innings in the win, allowing five runs on eight hits. BSC will return to Striplin Field this week to host Spalding University. The weekend series starts Friday at 4:00 p.m. and concludes on Saturday with a double-header starting at noon.

Centre was off last week. The Colonels open up its 2009 season February 24 when they host Transylvania. First pitch is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Centre is coming off a 20-17 season from a year ago where they finished with an 8-8 mark in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference action.

DePauw was off last week. The Tigers open up its 2009 season on Saturday February 21 when they travel to Maryville (Tenn.) for a double-header starting at noon. DePauw finished with a 35-11 overall record and a mark of 13-3 in SCAC play in 2008.

Hendrix split its conference opening two-game series with Millsaps over the weekend and picked up its first ever win over Division II Harding University on Thursday. The Warriors stand at 3-4 overall and 1-1 in conference play. Hendrix senior CF Daniel Ward went 3-for-4 with five runs scored and two runs batted in to lead the Warriors to a 17-9 victory over Harding on Thursday afternoon. Hendrix set a program record by scoring 17 runs in two-straight games. The Warriors had never scored more than 12 runs in two consecutive games in program history. The Warriors took advantage of 10 free passes and managed to pull out a 5-4 win despite collecting just four hits in their SCAC opener at Millsaps on Saturday. Millsaps senior right fielder Hunter Owen blasted a game winning lead-off homer on the first pitch of the 10th inning to give the Majors a 2-1 win over Hendrix on Sunday. 

Millsaps is off to a 7-1 start overall and 1-1 mark in league play after a 4-1 week on the diamond. The Majors wrapped up a stretch of six games in six days with a pair of Monday and Tuesday victories at Piedmont (6-5, 11-7), then followed that up with a 13-10 win over Huntingdon on Wednesday. After a two-day break, Millsaps welcomed league-foe Hendrix to town and came away with a weekend split. The Warriors took Game 1 by a 5-4 score thanks to 10 walks surrendered by the Majors, while senior Preseason All-American Hunter Owen's walk-off home run on Sunday in the 10th sent Millsaps to a 2-1 victory to get the split. Owen hit .471 for the week to push his average out to .417, going 8-for-17 with 13 total bases, seven runs, two doubles, two RBIs and a home run. Aaron Williams, Ryan Zemke, Drew Maddox and Boomer Hudson each picked up wins on the hill with ERA's under 3.60, while Maddox and Tait Hendrix earned saves. Millsaps will be back on the diamond Tuesday in Clinton, traveling to Mississippi College for the opening game of the Cowboy Maloney Trophy Series. They close the week at Southwestern for a 3-game series.

Oglethorpe took to the diamond for the first time this past week, going 1-2 in three contests. The Stormy Petrels opened their season with a 10-5 road loss to LaGrange on Tuesday afternoon. The Petrels took a 3-1 lead in the second inning, and came back from a 5-3 deficit to tie it in the sixth, but LaGrange pulled away with a three-run bottom-of-the-sixth. They then split their Saturday doubleheader with Maryville, losing the first game 9-8, but then winning the second game 11-0 in eight innings. Oglethorpe fought valiantly in the first game, taking an 8-2 lead in the fifth inning of a scheduled seven. Maryville scored five in the sixth, and then two in the bottom of the seventh to win it. Oglethorpe bounced back in the second game behind a good outing from Sam Briend. He went six shutout innings, allowing just three hits and six walks, striking out seven and picking up the win. J.J. Rizzo went 3-for-5 with a double and four RBIs. They will return home for their home opener on Tuesday, a doubleheader against Atlanta Christian. First pitch will be at 4 p.m.

Rhodes went 1-1 on the week splitting a weekend series against Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Ala. Rhodes won Saturday's contest 7-5 before dropping Sunday's game 5-4. Senior Andy Holt picked up his second victory of the year on Saturday going 5.1 innings allowing 4 runs and striking out 7. Junior Max Gertz picked up his first save of the season. On Sunday Sophomore Taylor Babich and Charles Simmons limited Huntingdon to three hits but 4 Lynx errors causing 3 unearned runs were too much to overcome for the Rhodes offense. The Lynx offense was led by freshman CF Travis Perkins who was 3-7  with a double, 3 RBIs, two runs scored, walked once and stole a base. Rhodes will return to action with a home mid-week game against Rust College on Tuesday before traveling to Atlanta, Ga. for the Rawlings Classic hosted by Emory University. Rhodes will take on Piedmont College at 2:00 on Friday, Greensboro College at 12:00 on Saturday, Emory at 10:00 and North Carolina Wesleyan at 4:00 on Sunday.

Sewanee opened its 2009 baseball season at Piedmont last week and the game was locked at one apiece until the fifth inning until the host Lions jacked a pair of homeruns to take the lead they would increase to 9-2 for the final tally in the Piedmont win. Franklin Pogue and Trey Axe led Sewanee's offensive effort with a double and a single each. Pogue also got one of Sewanee's RBIs, along with newcomer Thomas Pillow. The Tigers then wrapped up a weekend at Piedmont on Sunday and got out to a 2-0 lead on Rascoe Dean and Pogue runs driven in by Denison in the second inning. Piedmont rallied, though, and a two-run third followed by a six-run fourth sent the host Lions on their way to an eventual 17-8 win.

Southwestern went 2-3 this week against American Southwestern Conference schools.  Southwestern took on Howard Payne University on Wednesday. A tough fifth inning by Pirate pitchers allowed HPU to post three runs on the board to go up 8-2. SU rallied and posted 2 runs in the sixth and one in the seventh, but fell 8-5. Freshman Cray Betts was 3-5 in the game and scored twice. Truman Hunt recorded the loss for the Pirates. On Saturday, Hardin Simmons came to Georgetown for a double-header. In game one, SU jumped out to an early lead going up 4-1 after four innings of play. HSU tried to climb back into it by posting two runs in the sixth, but could not get closer. In the second game, Southwestern wasted no time making their mark by scoring 6 runs in the second. They added two more in the fourth and five in the sixth to win 13-0. Wes Willis recorded the win in game one and Brantley Freeman was the winning pitcher in game two. Todd Boone was 6-8 with 4 RBI's and 3 runs in the two games.

Trinity finished the week with a 1-2 overall record, but did split a weekend series with Austin College to tie for the early lead in the SCAC West Division. Trinity lost a 7-3 game at Texas Lutheran University on Tuesday, then outlasted Austin College with a 9-8 win in 11 innings on Saturday afternoon. Austin came back to split the weekend series with a 14-8 win on Sunday. Third baseman Kevin Jackson hit a walk-off homer with one out in the bottom of the 11th inning to lift the Tigers to Saturday's win. Jackson was 4-6 with two runs and four RBI in the game, hitting his first collegiate home run. On Sunday, shortstop Stosh Hoover was a bright spot in a lopsided loss for the Tigers. Hoover doubled his career total with two home runs in Sunday's game, collecting a career-high six RBI in the process. Hoover was 4-5 with three runs and six RBI, hitting a triple to go with his two home runs. After just two home games, Trinity will be back on the road this week, taking on the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor on Tuesday afternoon. After that, the Tigers will play a three-game series at Sul Ross State University from Friday to Sunday. Trinity returns home the following weekend for a two-game SCAC series against Hendrix College.

For the complete SCAC Diamond Weekly for Week 2, click here.