SUWANEE, Ga. - With two weeks left before the SCAC tournament, Trinity, Millsaps and Austin College secured the three tournament seeds from the West Division. In the East Division, however, all three spot remain up for grabs with two conference weekends remaining.
AROUND THE SCAC
Austin College went 1-3 during
the week. The ‘Roos dropped a 10-1 decision to Texas-Tyler
before dropping two of three at Hendrix. Austin College fell 7-3 in
the first game of the series before splitting their doubleheader
with an 11-9 loss and a 10-6 win on Saturday. Phillip Gonzales hit
.667 with five runs, four RBI and two doubles and Bennett Herrick
was .455 with a homer and five RBI on the week. Brian Buehler also
had a big weekend, hitting .333 with five RBI and Scooter Merritt
went .400 and scored five runs. John Schulmeister picked up the win
over the weekend, pitching 3.2 innings in relief and surrendering
just one unearned run on four hits while striking out four batters.
In their 10-6 win, the ‘Roos scored five runs over the span
of the first two innings and then added five more between the 6th
and 7th innings to secure the win with Gonzales going 4-for-5 with
three RBI in the game.
No. 15 Birmingham-Southern went 5-0 this week
including a three-game sweep of Centre to move to 24-4 overall and
8-1 in SCAC play. On Tuesday and Wednesday the Panthers
hosted NAIA Loyola out of New Orleans for a two-game series.
Tuesday’s night game was moved to historic Rickwood Field due
to electrical problems at Striplin Field. BSC took game one
15-5 and game two 7-1. The weekend series with Centre started
on Friday with a 7-1 win for the Panthers before taking both games
of Saturday’s double header 11-1 and 7-5. Freshman
first baseman Bruce Maxwell continued his stellar offensive play
with a home run in each of the games this week. Maxwell is on
a six-game home run streak dating back to last Sunday’s game
at Sewanee. ‘Southern will travel up to Memphis this
weekend to take on the Lynx.
Centre went 1-3 on the week defeating Mount St.
Joseph 13-10 Wednesday and then dropping all three games to
Birmingham Southern on the weekend. The Colonels jumped out to a
5-0 lead against the Lions and then led 9-4 only to have Mount St.
Joseph tie the game at 9-9. Centre scored four runs in the top of
the fifth and allowed only one more the rest of the way for the
13-10 win. Against Birmingham Southern, the Colonels fell 9-1 and
11-1 in the first two games but led 5-3 into the bottom of the
seventh of game three. The Panthers rallied with two two-run home
runs to win game three. Centre, now 8-13 overall and 3-6 in the
SCAC, will play at Thomas More Tuesday and then host Oglethorpe
Saturday and Sunday.
DePauw posted a 3-1 record for the week starting with a 14-5 win over Wabash on Wednesday. They then dropped a 10-5 decision to visiting Rhodes on Saturday and swept a twinbill on Sunday by scores of 7-1 and 18-5. For the week, DePauw hit .374 and had a .610 slugging percentage. Ben Gardner had at least two hits in all four games and posted a .643 batting average for the week, a 1.143 slugging percentage and a .722 on-base percentage. He scored eight runs and drove in seven. Jason Cohen hit .533 for the week, while Alex Wright batted .467. Elliott Ross posted a 2-0 record with a 1.93 earned run average after picking up a win as a starter against Wabash and coming out of the bullpen in Sunday's first game with Rhodes
Hendrix entered the weekend needing three wins over Austin College to mathematically stay in the hunt for post season play and came up one victory shy of completing its goal. The Warriors earned a 7-3 win in game one, an 11-9 win in game two and then suffered the heartbreaking 10-6 loss in the final game on Saturday afternoon at Warrior Field. Hendrix falls to 15-15 overall and 7-11 in SCAC action. The Roos take the season series with a 3-2 record over the Warriors in 2010 and clinch a spot in the post season classic. The Warriors jumped out to a 9-0 lead after four innings in the second game. Austin rallied for seven runs (one earned) on seven hits and an error in the fifth to make it a 9-7 ball game.
Millsaps finished the week winning three of its four games to improve to 19-11 overall. A career-high six RBI from Jason Riggins led the Majors to a 19-8 run-rule victory over the No. 10 ranked Mississippi College Choctaws on Tuesday evening. Millsaps scored at least two runs in every inning to end its season-long four-game losing streak. John Marshall Pemberton picked up his first win of the season pitching 4.2 innings in relief. Traveling to LaGrange College for a three-game weekend series, the Majors won game one on Friday, 5-2 before dropping the finale, 7-4. Millsaps built a 4-0 lead through three innings which was all the run support Aaron Williams needed as he won his sixth straight start of the season as the Majors claimed the victory, 5-2. In the rubber match on Saturday, the Majors trailed 8-4 heading into the bottom of the ninth but rallied to score 11 runs in the final inning to come away with the series-clinching victory, 15-8. The Majors will return to Jackson for a non-conference game with Huntingdon on Tuesday starting at 4 p.m.
Oglethorpe went 4-0 on the week with a
non-conference road victory over LaGrange on Wednesday and a
three-game sweep of Sewanee over the weekend. The Petrels beat
LaGrange, 10-5. Freshman righty John Gibbs moved his record to a
perfect 3-0 on the season, as he allowed just one earned run on
four hits over five innings. The Petrels then swept Sewanee in a
doubleheader Saturday afternoon. They won the first game, 13-4,
then won the second game, 11-8. In Game 1, Andy Farrey hit two home
runs while driving in five for the game. J.J. Rizzo also had a
three RBI game, including a home run, and Nick Manai added two RBI
doubles. Matthew Cornwell tallied another complete game, allowing
four runs on seven hits, striking out eight. He also had a
good game at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a leadoff home
run, and scoring three runs. In Game 2, the Petrels scored
nine of their 11 runs in the third and fourth innings, running out
to a big lead and then hanging on to it at the end.
Rhodes went 1-2 in games played between March
29th and April 4th. The Lynx traveled to Greencastle, Ind. for
a 3 game conference set against DePauw. Rhodes won the first
game of the weekend 10-5, behind a strong pitching performance by
Hunter Chandler. Chandler went 6.2 IP allowed nine hits, four
earned runs, walked two, and struck out four. Junior Brent
Lindsey went 3-4 with a home run, double, three runs, three RBIs,
and a walk. Rhodes dropped the 2nd and 3rd games of the
weekend, 7-1 and 18-5, respectively. With the victory on
Saturday, Rhodes head coach Jeff Cleanthes won his 200thcareer
game. In his 9+ years as a head coach, Cleanthes has a 200-176
career coaching record, and a 161-116 record since coming to Rhodes
in the fall of 2004. This week Rhodes has a mid-week game
against Division II Christian Brothers University and a three game
conference weekend against Birmingham-Southern.
Sewanee dropped a trio of SCAC games to Oglethorpe in Atlanta this weekend. Michael Joseph had four hits on Saturday, including his seventh homerun of the season for Sewanee. Greg Bartleski and Logan Ray were the pitchers of record for Sewanee in the doubleheader. On Sunday, Franklin Pogue led the Tigers at the plate with three hits, including a double and a triple, and four RBI. Starting pitcher Wilson Nealy suffered the loss on the mound for the Tigers giving up nine runs, seven of which were earned, on eleven hits in 3.1 innings. Sewanee drops to 6-19 overall and 1-8 in SCAC play. The Tigers will return to action on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. when they square off with Covenant College in a non-conference game to be played at the Gamble Sports Complex in Winchester, Tenn.
Southwestern closed out its home stand with a win over McMurry on Tuesday and then fell to UT-Dallas on Wednesday before returning to SCAC action. Tuesday's game was a high scoring affair as the Pirates took control early and continued to pile on the runs, extending their win streak to eight with a 19-12 win. UTD came to town on Wednesday and stole a 12-9 victory away from the Pirates with a six run fourth inning. With home non-conference games predominately over for the season the Pirates returned to SCAC contests facing Trinity in a pair of must wins for the Pirates to stay in the hunt for the final playoff spot. Southwestern had no trouble plating runs in game one but struggled defensively as they recorded five errors, falling 18-10. Day two was much of the same in the field as the Pirates committed four errors and fell 19-2 in a shortened contest. SU now sits at 11-20 on the year and 4-11 in the SCAC.
No. 25 Trinity swept a two-game SCAC series against Southwestern over the weekend, improving to 23-7 overall and 11-4 in conference play. With the wins, the Tigers take over the lead in the SCAC West Division. It was an offensive showcase in game one of the series, with Trinity taking an 18-10 slugfest that featured 21 hits by the Tigers – a new season-best. The Tiger offense scored in all but one inning in the game. In game two, Trinity’s bats picked up where they left off the day before, scoring eight runs in the first two innings, then scoring 10 runs on 12 hits in the bottom of the sixth. The offense also beat the previous game’s season-high in hits, cracking more than 20 for the second straight day. Tiger pitching yielded just one run through six innings, and the team scored a 19-2 win in the series finale. That win also gave Trinity a regular season series sweep over Southwestern. Trinity also won three games in Georgetown, Texas, earlier this year. The Tigers remain at home for a Tuesday night game against the Mary Hardin-Baylor, then hit the road for another important SCAC series. Trinity faces Austin College in a pair of conference games on Saturday and Sunday. Earlier this season, the Tigers swept Austin College in San Antonio to clinch the season series.
For the complete SCAC Diamond Weekly for Week 9, click here.