SUWANEE, Ga. - Two of the SCAC's hottest teams, Austin College and Southwestern University, extended their winning streaks the week of March 22-28. The Kangaroos extended their streak to four with four wins (including a three game sweep of Millsaps) while the Pirates extended their winning streak to seven with two wins over Schreiner.

Birmingham-Southern College and Trinity University remained in the D3baseball.com Top-25 poll. The pair were joined by Rhodes College in the American Baseball Coaches Association Top-25 poll this week as well.

AROUND THE SCAC

Austin College went 4-0 last week, including a three game sweep of Millsaps, to improve to 15-11 overall and 8-7 in conference play. The ‘Roos kicked off the week by topping LeTourneau 14-8 before toppling the Majors by scores of 7-6, 19-18 and 11-9 in their weekend series. In their first game against Millsaps on Saturday, the ‘Roos fell behind 6-0 entering the bottom of the seventh before mounting an improbable last inning comeback with Tyler Appelquist’s three run walk off homer capping off a seven run inning to give them the win. The ‘Roos once again came back in game two both to force extra innings and then after falling behind 18-16 in the bottom of the 10^th, the ‘Roos rallied with three runs to earn the victory. On Sunday the ‘Roos again came from behind, this time using a five run sixth to go ahead for good after trailing 7-4 early. White finished with 11 RBI on the week.

No. 20 Birmingham-Southern went 3-1 this week, including a three-game sweep of Sewanee. The Panthers traveled down to take on in-state Huntingdon College on Wednesday, falling 8-6 to the Hawks before the weekend series with the Tigers. Games one and three of the series passed without much trouble for the Panthers, both resulting in ten-plus run margins. Game two was a different story. The game saw three lead changes and just one inning where neither team posted a run. The Panthers led only once in the middle of the third and used the remaining innings to chip into the Tiger’s lead. The Panthers came back and scored two runs in the ninth to take the 14-13 win. The Panthers will return to Striplin Field this week to host two series. 

Centre played five games on the week, going 1-4 overall and 1-2 in SCAC play. The Colonels traveled to Milligan College, Tenn. and dropped a pair of games to Milligan falling 10-2 and 8-1 in the second. Centre returned home to host Rhodes. Leading 2-1 into the top of the seventh, the Colonels allowed three runs and fell 4-2 in the opener. Centre bounced back in game two with a 5-0 shutout for a split on day one, but fell behind 8-1 after two innings of game three. The Colonels tied the game at 8-8, but allowed three runs late in the game to fall 11-8. Centre, now 7-12 overall and 3-3 in the SCAC, will play at Mount St. Joseph Wednesday and then travel to play at Birmingham Southern Friday and Saturday.

DePauw posted a 4-3 record on its spring break trip including a 1-2 mark in its SCAC series at Oglethorpe. The Tigers opened with three straight wins over LaGrange, Emory and Piedmont before dropping the second game of a doubleheader at Piedmont. DePauw dropped the opener of its series at Oglethorpe by a 9-3 score before taking an 8-7 win in Saturday's nightcap. The Stormy Petrels topped the Tigers in game three by a 6-3 score. For the week, the Tigers hit .311 but opponents hit .318. Taylor Hoffman paced the Tigers with a .481 batting average followed by Jason Cohen at .458 and Rob McPike at .400. Hoffman paced the team with 10 runs, 13 hits and eight RBI as well as an .815 slugging percentage. T.J. Witham made three relief appearances and posted a 2-0 record with one save.

Hendrix went 3-2 over the week after a pair of midweek wins against cross-town rival Central Baptist and a 1-2 weekend at Trinity. Hendrix earned a 12-11 come-from-behind win over CBC in Wednesday’s opener and sophomore Drew Gustafson hurled a complete game to lead the Warriors to a 9-3 win in the night cap at Warrior Field. Sophomore Teddy Smoyer tossed a complete game gem for his second win of the year against Trinity and helped lead the Warriors to a 9-2 win in Saturday’s opener. The Warriors dropped a 7-5 nine-inning game in the night cap.  Trinity ended the series with a 12-2 run-run victory on Sunday. Hendrix now stands at 12-14 overall and 5-10 in SCAC play. The Warriors are 3.0 games back from Austin College for third place in the SCAC West Division and will look to erase that deficit when they host the Roos for three games on April 2 and 3. 

Millsaps ended a disappointing week having lost all four games to drop to 16-10 overall and 9-5 in the SCAC. The Majors opened with a non-conference contest with cross-town rival Belhaven University Tuesday evening and fell behind early and could not recover falling 14-7. Heading to Austin College for a pivotal weekend series with the ‘Roos, the Majors were able to hold a lead late in all three games but allowed the ‘Roos to rally each time for the come-from-behind victory. Starting game one of a doubleheader on Saturday, the Majors jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in the first inning with two-run home runs by Josh Ordeneaux and Berry while Jake Mills added an RBI single. AC’s Tyler Appelquist hit a walk-off three-run home run to win the series-opener, 7-6. Game two was a slugfest, but it was AC rallying in the bottom of the tenth to come away with the victory, 19-18 in ten innings. In the season-series finale, the Majors held a 7-4 lead in the sixth but could not hold on as the ‘Roos rallied for the third straight time to win, 11-9.

Oglethorpe went 2-3 on the week, dropping both games of a doubleheader against Greensboro last Wednesday before rallying to take two out of three from DePauw on the weekend. Against Greensboro, the Petrels dropped game one 3-1 and game two, 5-4. In Game 1, the Petrels wasted a quality outing from John Hale, only recording three hits - one each from three separate players - and scoring one unearned run. Hale threw a complete game, allowing six hits and just two earned runs. He walked none and struck out two. Against DePauw, Oglethorpe split Saturday’s doubleheader, taking game one, 9-3 and dropping game two, 8-7 before taking the rubber match on Sunday, 6-3. In Game 1, Matthew Cornwell, who threw a complete game, allowing two earned runs on five hits, striking out seven and walking none. The Petrels pulled away late, scoring all nine runs in their last four turns at-bat. Oglethorpe improves to 12-13 on the year, and2-4 in SCAC play.

Rhodes went 2-1 this week in the second conference weekend of the year, defeating Centre College 4-2 and 11-8, while losing 5-0. Rhodes needed a pinch hit home run by junior Austin Marcum to tie the game in the top of the seventh and took the lead on a 2 run shot by junior Brent Lindsey. On Sunday, Rhodes took an 8-5 lead after two innings, before Centre tied it in the bottom of the fifth. The Lynx then got a single run in the sixth and put the game away with a 2 run home run by junior Chris Conkell. Sophomore Austin Carden improved to 5-2 on the year, throwing 6 innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 2 walks, and struck out 9 in the first game on Saturday. Freshman Jackson Baker earned his first save of the year on Sunday, throwing 3 innings, allowed 1 hit, 2 walks, no runs, and struck out 4. Lindsey hit .333 on the week (3-9) with an on base percentage of .500. Lindsey had a home run, double, 3 runs scored, drove in 3, and walked 3 times. This weekend Rhodes will travel to DePauw for a 3 game conference weekend. 

Sewanee fell to Emory at home Wednesday before dropping three games to SCAC foe Birmingham-Southern this weekend. Michael Joseph pounded out three homeruns on Saturday for the Tigers and has hit six homers this year and has 20 RBIs. Taylor Irwin is leading the Tigers with a .412 batting average in 85 at-bats. Greg Bartleski is leading the Tigers on the mound with a 2-3 record. Sewanee is 6-16 and will play at Oglethorpe this weekend.

Southwestern had a light week in comparison to the fury of games they have hosted recently and extended their win streak to seven with a pair of wins against Schreiner on Tuesday. In the first game the Mountaineers tied it up in the top of the seventh forcing SU to seek out the win after leading early. Kyle Belski led off the inning by drawing a walk and Cray Betts advanced pinch runner Ross Meyer to second with a well executed sacrifice bunt. Gavrel stepped to the plate with confidence and hit a bomb to centerfield that carried to the fence, allowing ample time to score Meyer from second for the 6-5 win. In the second game Southwestern scored early and often, posting four runs in the second, two in the fourth, two in the fifth and then let their defense shine the rest of the way to win 8-5. The Pirates now sit at 10-17 on the year and 4-9 in the SCAC and return to action at home with a single game against McMurry on Tuesday and UT-Dallas on Wednesday before heading to San Antonio to take on Trinity over the weekend.

No. 24 Trinity went 3-2 last week, splitting a pair of road games in Abilene, Texas, before taking two out of three games from defending SCAC champs Hendrix College over the weekend. Trinity suffered a narrow 11-10 loss at McMurry on Tuesday, then rebounded with a 16-8 win against Hardin-Simmons later that afternoon. Hendrix took the opening game of the weekend SCAC series, but the Tigers then scored wins in the final two games. The weekend marked the 10th time in 11 seasons that Trinity has won 20 or more games under Head Coach Tim Scannell. Next up for Trinity will be a pair of SCAC games over the upcoming holiday weekend. The Tigers will host Southwestern University in two games on Friday and Saturday. Earlier this season, Trinity swept a three-game series at Southwestern to ensure the regular season series win.

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