SUWANEE, Ga. - The field and seeds are set for the 2012 SCAC Baseball tournament, April 26-29 at USA Stadium in Millington, Tennessee. Rhodes earned the No. 2 seed in the East thanks to a sweep of Sewanee and a Millsaps loss on Sunday. The Majors settled for the No. 3 seed in the East.
The rest of the field is No.1 West Trinity vs. No. 3 East Millsaps. That game will be followed by No. 2 East Rhodes vs. No. 2 West Hendrix. The last game of the first day will be No. 1 East Birmingham-Southern vs. No. 3 West Dallas.
AROUND THE SCAC
Austin College put together its strongest
weekend of the season to close out the year, going 2-1 against No.
4-ranked Trinity in the final series of the season for the
‘Roos. The ‘Roos topped Trinity 8-2 and 11-10 on
Saturday before falling 10-0 on Sunday to finish the year with an
overall record of 8-29 and a conference mark of 5-15. Tyler
Appelquist had a strong weekend at the plate, hitting .417 with a
pair of RBI and three runs scored, and Mason Leech batted .400 and
also drove in two runs. John Schulmeister hit .385 and drove in
three runs while also scoring three. Senior pitcher Cullen Calabria
tossed a gem in the final start of his career on Saturday, going
the distance and allowing just two runs on eight hits with two
strikeouts and no walks to earn the victory.
No. 9 Birmingham-Southern went 3-1 this week, all at
home, defeating Piedmont on Wednesday, splitting with Millsaps on
Saturday, and downing the Majors on Sunday. Sunday's win was
especially thrilling, with the game-winning runs coming from an
eighth-inning grand slam by sophomore Ethan Netherton. The Panthers
head into their first-ever SCAC Championship this weekend as the
number one seed in the East Division, taking on Dallas on
Thursday.
Centre went 1-3 on the week falling to Maryville 11-10
and then going 1-2 on the weekend against Oglethorpe. Against the
Stormy Petrels, the Colonels split a doubleheader Saturday losing
2-1 in game one and then winning the nightcap 13-2. Oglethorpe then
won Sunday's game 11-3. Two school records were broken as junior
Danny Freudiger drew his 30th walk of the season in Sunday's game
for a new single season walk record. The Colonels also set a new
single season team record with 237 strikeouts in a season. Centre
finishes the season 14-24 overall and 4-10 in the SCAC.
Dallas (23-15, 10-10 SCAC) went 3-0 on the week at home
to conclude the regular season. The Crusaders enter the 2012 SCAC
Championship Baseball Tournament as the West Division No. 3 seed,
and will play East Division No. 1 seed Birmingham-Southern on
Thursday at 7 p.m. at USA Stadium in Millington, Tenn. Dallas
defeated Howard Payne, 4-3, in a nine-inning affair. In the
victory, Marin Cronin improved to 1-1 on the season. Against Dallas
Christian College Luciano Villanueva (3-0) picked up the win for
Dallas in Game 1, when Hunter Berry hit a walk-off RBI single to
right field to score Mark Carlson. In the squad's final home game
of the 2012 season, the Crusaders registered a 10-6 win in Game 2.
Pitching the second and third innings, Jacob Bruns (2-2) was the
winning pitcher of record. With two stolen bases in Game 2, Devin
Arnold's 34 stolen bases in 2012 have tied for the single-season
school record which he set a year ago. Sitting at 83 career stolen
bases, he is also Dallas' career stolen bases leader. Also netting
two hits (triple) and two walks, Arnold accumulated four runs in
Game 2.
Hendrix won two of three games in the regular
season ending series at Southwestern. The Pirates took Saturday's
first game 2-1. Sophomore catcher J.T. Bowen knocked in sophomore
Collin Radack for the only run. Freshman Grant Nunn allowed three
hits and a walk with two strikeouts in five innings of scoreless
relief. Hendrix rebounded to win game two 11-0, for their second
shutout of the year. Freshman third baseman Brady Newville went
4-for-5 with three driven in. Senior center fielder Aaron Bowen was
2-for-2 with two runs scored, two batted in and reached twice on
hit by pitch. Senior second baseman Clark Sims drove in two runs
and stole a base. The Warriors tied their program record with 22
wins by taking Sunday's game 8-6. Senior first baseman Mark
Vlaskamp went 3-for-3. Newville also had two hits and senior Nathan
Harr walked and scored twice. Hendrix will open the SCAC
Championship with Rhodes on Thursday.
Millsaps finished their regular season this
past week as they went 2-2 including clinching the Maloney Series
by defeating Belhaven and dropping two out of three to
Birmingham-Southern. After defeating Belhaven 4-1 to claim their
fifth Maloney Series, they were back in action on this weekend
where they defeated BSC in Game One 7-2. Junior Will Edwards goes
to 8-2 on the season and finished his afternoon with his fourth
complete game including two earned runs off two hits while striking
out six on the afternoon to give the Panthers their first
conference loss of the season. However, the Majors went on to drop
the next two games 10-3 and a heartbreaking 8-6 loss thanks to a
grand slam in the eighth. Millsaps falls to 25-14 on the year and
9-5 in the SCAC. They prepare for the SCAC Tournament on Thursday
as the Majors will be in the opening game against the No. 1 seed in
the Western Division, No. 4 team in the Nation, and an old rival,
the Trinity Tigers. First pitch is set to begin at 12 p.m. from USA
Stadium in Millington, Tenn.
Oglethorpe finished out their conference slate in style
this past weekend, taking two of three at Centre. The team split a
doubleheader with Centre Saturday afternoon, winning the first
game, 2-1, and losing the second game, 13-2. In Game 1, Cory Leff
threw a complete game for his first win of the season, allowing
just one run on five hits. He walked two and struck out four.
However, Centre dominated from the outset in Game 2. They scored
all 13 runs in the first two innings, four in the first and nine in
the second. In Sunday’s finale, Oglethorpe defeated Centre,
11-3. The Petrels pounded out 15 hits in the game, and all nine
offensive starters collected at least one. The Petrels will finish
out the 2012 season this weekend with home and away games against
rival Emory on Saturday and Sunday.
Rhodes went 4-0 during the final week of the regular
season, defeating Christian Brothers 7-5 on Thursday, and sweeping
Sewanee in the final SCAC series of the 2012 season. Rhodes won the
first game 10-5, as senior RHP Austin Carden improved to 8-3 on the
year. Rhodes won the second game of double header 7-4, behind
another strong pitching performance by junior RHP Jackson Baker. On
Sunday, Rhodes finished off the regular season with a 12-2 victory
on Senior Day as Matt Burnick picked up his 5th victory
of the season. The Lynx offense was led by junior SS Lynden
Pindling who was hit .538 (7-13) with 2 doubles, 6 runs scored, 4
RBIs, walked twice, and stole 3 games. Pindling had a slugging
percentage of .692 and a .600 on base percentage. Senior CF Travis
Perkins hit .454 (5-11) with a home run, double, 8 runs scored, 3
RBIs, 6 walks, got hit by a pitch and stole 7 bases. Perkins had an
on base percentage of .667 and a slugging percentage of .818.
Sophomore 3B Strother White hit .714 (5-7) with a double, 3 runs
scored, and 3 RBIs. Rhodes will open the 2012 SCAC Championship as
the #2 seed from the East and will take on the #2 seed from the
West, Hendrix, at 3:30 on Thursday at USA Stadium in Millington,
Tenn.
Sewanee closed out its conference season with three
straight losses at Rhodes. The Tigers were doomed by a lack of
quality pitching after the Lynx managed over 10 runs all three
games. On Sunday, Sewanee went up early, however Rhodes rallied
with 12 straight runs after the fourth inning. This week, Sewanee
will close out its 2012 regular season with a non-conference
contest against regional foe Tennessee Temple.
Southwestern closed out the 2012 season with a
non-conference game against Texas Lutheran on Tuesday before
hosting Hendrix for a three-game series over the weekend. The
Pirates controlled the majority of the game against TLU, but the
Bulldogs led when it mattered, scoring in the bottom of the ninth
inning to win 4-3. On Saturday SU opened with a 2-1 win over the
Warriors, getting a sensational pitching performance from Chris
Webber, but struggled to get things going offensively in game two,
losing 11-0. Sunday opened with a ceremony to honor the four
seniors graduating this year for SU, Nate Shipp, Cray Betts, Chris
Webber and Matt Stuart. The bats were alive as Southwestern and
Hendrix combined for 28 hits and 14 runs. Southwestern led through
seven innings but a three-run eighth was too much for the Pirates
to overcome as they fell 8-6. SU ends the year at 11-27 overall and
7-13 in the SCAC.
No. 8 Trinity went 3-2 over the past week, sweeping
Schreiner in a Tuesday doubleheader, and going 1-2 against Austin
College over the weekend. The Tigers rebounded to win the regular
season finale on Sunday against Austin, after losing both games of
a Saturday doubleheader. Ben Klimesh became Trinity’s
all-time strikeouts leader on Saturday, punching out eight Austin
College batters to pass Trinity Hall of Famer Paul Stanley
(1970-73) on the career list. Klimesh is also the SCAC’s new
single season record-holder in strikeouts, recording 134 this
season. Earlier in the week, Nick Pappas became the ninth player in
Trinity history to reach 200 career hits. He had eight hits in two
games against Schreiner to reach 200 for his career, becoming the
35th player in SCAC history to achieve the milestone. Trinity will
attempt to become the third team in SCAC history to win three
straight SCAC Championships at the conference tournament this
weekend. The Tigers have won the past two SCAC Tournaments,
securing the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Playoffs.
Trinity will face former West Division rival Millsaps in the
opening game of the tournament, at 12 p.m. on Thursday.
For the complete SCAC Baseball Diamond Weekly for
Week 12, click here.