Baseball Recap (Week 8) - Around The SCAC

Baseball Recap (Week 8)  - Around The SCAC

SUWANEE, Ga. - Led by the hitting of Jeff Forgerson and the pitching of Wheeler Gnat, the Hendrix College Warriors made history this past weekend. By taking two of three games from Trinity, the Warriors became the first Hendrix team to win a season series over the Tigers in over eight years. In the East, the Birmingham-Southern Panthers put an end to Oglethorpe's nine game winning streak by taking two of three from the Stormy Petrels.

The Petrels remain hot. The nine game winning streak was the programs's longest since the 1997 season and have won 10 of its past 12 games. With 15 wins so far, Oglethorpe has already surpassed last season's win total of 13.

Millsaps College continued its weekly climb atop the polls. The Majors jumped up two spots in the D3baseball.com poll this week to third. Millsaps also clinched a spot in the 2009 SCAC Baseball Tournament with two wins over Austin.

AROUND THE SCAC

Austin dropped its three games on the week, falling to a pair of nationally ranked opponents in UT-Tyler and Millsaps. Against Tyler, the ‘Roos fell behind 5-0 early before cutting the deficit to 7-5 but the Patriots proved to be too much, scoring five runs over the final three innings to hand Austin College a 12-5 loss. Lee Cohen went 2-for-3 with a triple and three RBI in the game. Against Millsaps, the ‘Roos again came back from an early 5-0 deficit to tie things up when they scored five runs all in the sixth inning to force extras, but a big eighth inning for the Majors made it a 9-5 final. Sean Muder and John Reisig each had two hits for the ‘Roos and Cohen had an RBI double. In game two, the Majors plated five runs in the top of the first and didn't look back on their way to handing the ‘Roos a 12-3 loss. Bobby Schleizer had a strong game at the plate, going 3-for-3 with two RBI and a double to pace the ‘Roos. For the week, Schleizer batted .600 in two games while Cohen hit .375 with four RBI, a double and a triple to lead the ‘Roos. 

Birmingham-Southern (18-5, 4-1 SCAC-East) took two-of-three this week from Oglethorpe to maintain their first-place position in the SCAC-East standings for another week. The Panthers took game one, 13-6 on Friday and game three 9-5 on Sunday. The Petrels took game two 9-4. Darby Weppner drove in 11 runs in the three-game set, including a two-run homer to help salt game one away for BSC. Clay Malcolm had the best weekend for the Panther hurlers, going six innings in Friday's win. He allowed just five hits and one run, keeping his record at a perfect 6-0 on the season. BSC will hit the road this week, traveling to Demorest, Ga. to take on Piedmont College in a single game on Tuesday before heading up to Greencastle, Ind. to play DePauw in a three-game weekender. 

Centre went 1-3 on the week falling 11-0 to Emory on the road and then winning one of three games at Rhodes on the weekend. The Colonels led 6-5 into the bottom of the ninth against Rhodes in their conference-opener, but allowed two runs to fall 7-6 in game one. Centre then fell 14-7 in game two before defeating the Lynx 8-4 in the series finale. The Colonels, now 4-14 overall and 1-2 in SCAC play, will host Asbury on Tuesday and then Sewanee in a three-game SCAC series this weekend.

DePauw wrapped up its Spring Break trip with a 5-2 mark during the week. The Tigers opened with a doubleheader split against St. Olaf before defeating St. Thomas and 22nd-ranked Wisconsin-Oshkosh. DePauw finished the trip by taking two out of three at Sewanee. For the week, DePauw hit .352 with a .576 slugging percentage. Ben Gardner paced the team with a .500 batting average (15-30), while Taylor Hoffman hit .452 with three homers and 12 RBI. Hoffman also scored 11 runs as the Tigers averaged over 11 runs during the stretch including two games of 20 or more runs. Gardner set a school record when he collected six base hits in the win over Wisconsin-Oshkosh. DePauw also was 28 of 31 in stolen bases with Justin Weiner and Gardner each collecting seven. For the season the Tigers have stolen 80 bases in 87 tries.

Hendrix went 2-2 this week with a pair victories over SCAC foe Trinity University this weekend. The Warriors dropped a midweek game to in-state rival University of the Ozarks on Thursday before losing the second game of Saturday's doubleheader to Trinity.  The Warriors now stand at 12-18 overall and 7-8 in the SCAC. The 2-1 record against Trinity this week grasped the 2009 series for the Warriors (first series win against Tigers in over eight years) and now gives Hendrix the tie-breaker in the west division standings for the coveted third place spot. The Warriors were led by sophomore 1B Jeff Forgerson this week with a .529 (9-for-17) batting average, a 1.176 slugging percentage, .556 on-base percentage, two doubles, three home runs, seven RBI and 20 total bases. Senior CF Daniel Ward collected two homers and drove in five runs on the week.

No. 3 Millsaps swept a pair of games at Austin College over the weekend to improve to 24-3 overall and 12-3 in league play. Sunday's victories wrapped up a 5-0 series win over the ‘Roos and secured a spot for the Majors in this year's SCAC Tournament in Jackson. In game one, Millsaps needed a four-run eighth in a scheduled 7-inning contest to come away with a 9-5 victory. The Majors carried the momentum into the second game with a five-run first inning, highlighted by a two-RBI double from Todd Barnthouse, as they cruised to a 12-3, run-rule victory in seven innings. Sophomore Tony Malaschak added back-to-back homers in the second and fourth innings en route to a career-high five RBIs. Senior right-hander Drew Maddox grabbed both wins for Millsaps in moving to a team-best 6-1 on the hill, earning the relief win in Game 1 and the victory off the start in Game 2 in which he notched his 100th career strikeout in the fourth inning. The Majors will close out a stretch of six-straight road games Tuesday, playing Belhaven College at 6 p.m. at Smith-Wills as part of the annual Maloney Trophy Series. 

Oglethorpe continued its hot play by taking 3 out of 5 games this past week. On Monday, the Petrels got a two-out, game-tying 3-run homer from Andy Farrey in the bottom of the 9th to help Oglethorpe top North Central College 9-8 in 10 innings. The following night, Oglethorpe bombed North Central by the final score of 24-4 as the team pounded out 21 hits and scored in every inning with the exception of the 8th. In his first collegiate start, Joseph Parillo connected for a grand slam and went 4-5 on the night. Over the weekend, the Petrels finally got conference play under way as they took one of three from the Birmingham-Southern Panthers. The Panthers won the series opener 13-6 to snap a 9-game Oglethorpe winning streak. The Petrels got back in the win column by taking game-two of the series by the score of 9-4. Llano again led the way for Oglethorpe going 2-5 at the plate and driving in three runs. In the rubber match on Sunday, the Panthers emerged victorious 9-5. Freshman Jake Spear led the Petrel attack by driving in 2 runs while going 2-4 at the plate. At 15-8 on the season, Oglethorpe has away games this week against LaGrange (Tuesday) and Division I Georgia State (Wednesday) before hosting a three-game weekend series with Rhodes.

Rhodes went 3-1 on the week with a 21-5 victory over Rust College on Tuesday and then took 2 of 3 from visiting Centre College. Rhodes won the first game of the series 7-6 when senior J.R. Bizzell hit a bases loaded double with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to drive in the winning runs. On Sunday, Rhodes split the double header, winning the first game 14-7, before dropping the second game 8-4. Senior 3B Mason Mosby led the Lynx offense hitting .667 (10-15) with a homerun, double, 8 runs scored, 4 RBIs, and stole 2 bases. Rhodes is now 19-11 on the year and 3-3 in SCAC play. Rhodes travels to Atlanta, Ga. this weekend to take on Oglethorpe University. 

Sewanee took on the DePauw Tigers for three games this weekend. Friday and Saturday resulted in a 10-6 and 23-11 loss respectively for Sewanee, while Sunday Sewanee was able to topple DePauw with a 10-9 win. Freshman Taylor Barrett stood out for the weekend, contributing a grand slam in the seventh inning of Saturday's game and the game winning hit in the dramatic ninth inning of Sunday's matchup. Taylor Irwin, Franklin Pogue, and Chris Mauro were also key contributors at the plate over the weekend. This leaves Sewanee 7-13 overall, and 1-5 in SCAC play. Sewanee will next face Centre College in a three-game SCAC series in Danville, Ky. beginning Friday. 

Southwestern was idle last week. The Pirates resume action on Tuesday when they face Concordia University-Austin at Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas. Southwestern and Concordia University-Austin will meet for the second time this season. The Pirates came away with a 10-3 win at Dell Diamond in Round Rock back on March 17. In that game center fielder Cray Betts led the Pirate offense as he went 3-for-5 with five RBI including a double and a home run. Matt Stuart picked up the win by pitching four innings in relief and scattered seven hits while striking out one.

Trinity went 2-2 overall last week, earning wins over Texas Lutheran University and Hendrix College. Trinity earned a season series split with Texas Lutheran with a 14-6 win on Tuesday night, then went on the road to face Hendrix and finish off the regular season SCAC series.  Hendrix won two of the three games to take the season series 3-2. Up next will be another three-game road series in SCAC play, facing off against Austin College this weekend. Trinity and Austin split a pair of games in San Antonio earlier this year. The Tigers won the opening game 9-8 on an 11th-inning walk off home run by Kevin Jackson. Game two was a 14-8 win for Austin College. Last year, Trinity swept a four-game road series from Austin College.

For the complete SCAC Diamond Weekly for Week 8, click here

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