Baseball Recap (Week 8) - Around the SCAC

Baseball Recap (Week 8) - Around the SCAC

SUWANEE, Ga. - Birmingham-Southern extended its winning streak to 13 games thanks to a 5-0 week and now sits at 18-5 on the season. The five wins last week helped the Panthers jump into both the D3baseball.com top 25 poll and the American Baseball Coaches Association poll.

AROUND THE SCAC

Austin College dropped all three of its weekend games against Hendrix over the weekend, falling 8-3 in game one, dropping a 10-9 extra inning heartbreaker in game two and falling 7-4 in game three to drop the ?Roos to 4-18 overall this season. Chase Muder and Travis Gibson each batted .444 to lead the way offensively, with Gibson adding two runs, two doubles, a homer and four RBI for the series. John Schulmeister batted .385 with a run scored, a homer and three RBI and added 3.0 solid innings on the mound, giving up one run on two hits with three strikeouts. Marshall Korn was also strong in relief, tossing 4.1 innings of scoreless ball. Josh Coughennower had a strong showing at the plate, hitting .333 with a triple and three runs batted in.

No. 24 Birmingham-Southern
went 5-0 this week at home, defeating Hendrix twice during the week in non-conference games against the Warriors, and sweeping Berry in a three-game series over the weekend. BSC has now won 13 straight games dating back to a home loss to Huntingdon on March 4. Junior Bruce Maxwell once again led the BSC offense, going 10-15 (.667) at the plate with five doubles, two home runs, and eight RBI. Eleven Panther pitchers saw action, combining for an ERA of 2.20 and led by junior Blake Yance who was 2-0 with a .000 ERA and five strikeouts. Sophomore Miles Nordgren and freshman David Bourbonnais also recorded saves this week. BSC travels to Atlanta this Tuesday to face Emory before traveling to Memphis this weekend for a conference series against Rhodes.

Centre
went 2-4 on the week. The Colonels fell 12-5 to No. 7 Piedmont Monday, lost 5-1 to LaGrange Tuesday, and then completed its spring break trip with a 6-2 win over LaGrange Wednesday. Centre returned home to host Rhodes in the SCAC opening series for both teams. Rhodes won games one and two 8-1 and 10-0 with the Colonels winning the series? finale 3-0. Centre, now 11-13 overall and 1-2 in the SCAC, will host Transylvania Wednesday and then Millsaps on the weekend.

Dallas
(13-11, 3-8 SCAC) went 1-4 on the week. It was substitutions galore for Dallas and their opponent Texas Wesleyan University on Wednesday in Irving, Texas, with both teams seeing a combined 14 different pitchers toe the rubber. The Crusaders staved off the Rams with a 10-5 nine-inning triumph, behind a home run for senior left fielder Devin Arnold, and three RBIs from freshman shortstop Nolan Kipp. This success was short-lived, however, as Dallas had a three-game series with No. 1 Trinity looming on the horizon. Things did not go Dallas' way in San Antonio, as the Crusaders were swept by the Tigers.

Hendrix
went 3-2 on the week, but moved to 9-2 in SCAC play and remained perfect at home with an 11-0 record at Warrior Field. The Warriors started the week by losing a pair of games at Birmingham-Southern in non-conference action. Hendrix rebounded though to sweep Austin at home, winning on Saturday 8-3 and 10-9 in 10 innings and taking Sunday?s game by the score of 7-4. In the series opener, senior starter Geoff Lomax moved to 5-2 on the year by fanning five in a complete game effort. Senior second baseman Clark Sims had two hits in the game, including a triple and scored twice. In game two, the ?Roos loaded the bases to start the top of the 10th, but the Warriors ended the threat with a 7-2-4 triple play, only the second triple play in program history. Senior first baseman Mark Vlaskamp came up with the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 10th, knocking in senior center fielder Aaron Bowen who led the frame off with single. Vlaskamp and Bowen both went 4-for-5 and senior catcher Andrew Thames had three hits and four driven. In Sunday?s game, sophomore starter Hendrix will face Rhodes in a non-conference game in Memphis on Tuesday, then return to SCAC play with a three-game series at Dallas beginning Saturday.

Millsaps opened up conference play as they traveled to Atlanta to take on the Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels. After dominating a game earlier in the week over Huntingdon, Millsaps took two out of three from the Petrels to improve to 2-1 in the SCAC. On Saturday, the Majors got a terrific performance from their starting pitchers and timely hitting throughout the afternoon to take the first two games 5-2 (7 inn.) and 7-2. Will Edwards continued his terrific work throughout the season. After giving up two runs off three hits in the first, he went on to give up no runs off four hits for the rest of the game while striking out five (six total) to earn his fourth win of the year. Will Elmore gave up two runs off three hits in the fourth, but for the rest of the game gave up no runs off three hits while striking out five total to earn his second win of the season. On Sunday, the Stormy Petrels in the final game of a three game Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference series. The Petrels got runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings to come from behind and salvage the final game of the series, 7-6. Millsaps falls to 15-9 overall and drops to 2-1 in the SCAC. They return to action on Tuesday as they welcome in the Mississippi College Choctaws for their third game of the Maloney Series. They then travel to Centre for SCAC action this weekend.

Oglethorpe
finished a tough spring break trip in Orlando earlier last week and came home for a thrilling three game series with Millsaps, their first SCAC battle of the season. The Majors managed to take two of three from the Petrels but each game was a close-knit affair. Millsaps swept the Saturday doubleheader, getting a 5-2 win in Game One and a 7-2 victory in Game Two. On Sunday, Oglethorpe won a college baseball classic 7-6 over the Majors in a game the Petrels rallied to victory from down 4 runs and used great defense to get the win. The win improves the Petrels to 7-14 on the season, 1-2 in SCAC play. They will next be in action Wednesday night, when they will host former SCAC foe DePauw at Anderson Field, beginning at 7 p.m.

Rhodes
went 2-1 in their opening weekend of SCAC play, taking the first two of the three game set at Centre. Rhodes opened the series with a 8-1 victory, then defeated Centre 10-0 in the second game of Saturday?s double header. On Sunday, Centre shut down the Lynx offense as they defeated Rhodes 3-0. Senior RHP Austin Carden threw his first complete game of the year in the first game of the series working all seven innings, allowing 1 hit while striking out 5. Junior RHP Jackson Baker collected his second complete game shutout of the season in the second game, scattering 3 hits and striking out 7. The Lynx offense was led by senior CF Travis Perkins who hit .538 (7-13) on the week with a home run, run scored, 3 RBIs, and stole a base. Junior DH Matt Burnick hit .444 (4-9) with a home run, double, 3 runs, and drove in 4. Rhodes will return to action this Tuesday as they host Hendrix, before returning to SCAC play this weekend as they host Birmingham-Southern.

Sewanee
wrapped up the 2012 Russ-Matt Invitational with a 4-1record last week. After losing to Union College (L,5-3) Monday, Sewanee earned victories against UMASS-Dartmouth (W,11-10), Hamilton (W,10-5), Fontbonne (W,3-1), and against Worcester State (W,9-8). Individually, Ryne Sullivan finished the week 9-for-21 for a .429 batting average. Sullivan had four runs, five RBI, one double and one triple in five games. On the mound, pitcher Michael Walker finished the week with 6.0 innings of relief. The right-hander allowed only one hit while earning a 3-1 victory over Fontbonne. This week, the Tigers will play a Piedmont College in a midweek contest, before returning to action against Oglethorpe, Saturday and Sunday.

Southwestern had a much needed break from action this week. They remain at 6-17 on the year and 2-6 in the SCAC. The Pirates return to action on Tuesday with a single game at McMurry before heading to Sherman, Texas to face Austin College for a three game series over the weekend.

No. 1 Trinity
swept a three-game SCAC series from Dallas over the weekend, and the Tigers improved to 22-3 on the season. Trinity also remains in the lead in the SCAC West Division, holding an 11-0 conference mark. In Saturday?s series opener, Ben Klimesh gave up just one run over six innings to earn the win, improving to 9-0 on the season. He also recorded 10 strikeouts to break the all-time SCAC record for a career, becoming the only Trinity player in history to reach 100 strikeouts in more than one season. Klimesh would need 22 more strikeouts to break Trinity?s single season record (Brian Nowell, 1998), as well as 33 more to surpass the SCAC record for one season (Rose-Hulman?s Andy Cain, 1999). He is just 32 strikeouts from breaking Trinity?s career record, set by Trinity Hall of Famer Paul Stanley (1970-73). On Sunday, Ryan Lucero capped the series by striking out 12 Dallas batters for the second time this year, moving to 7-0 this season. Trinity will play just once this week, hosting the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday night.  The Tigers beat UMHB 5-3 last month in Belton, Texas.

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