Baseball Splits Weekend Doubleheader Against Point
West Point, GA- The baseball team, winners in 13 of their last 14 games including five straight, were back on the field on Saturday to close out the three-game series against Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) foe Point University in a doubleheader. Tennessee Wesleyan took the first game against the Skyhawks 7-2 on Friday.
A ball plunked Tyler Halas to begin the game, putting him on first base to open the doubleheader. Following a Collin Ridout double down the left field line, Aloysius Cruz hit a single to score both Halas and Ridout, giving the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead at the end of the first inning. The second inning began in a 2-2 tie, which was not broken until the bottom of the third inning by Point.
Looking like TWU was going in the bottom of the fourth trailing by a run, Grant Lang singled with two outs on the board. The next batter, Alfred Cruz, moved the pinch-runner for Lang, Brandon Walsh, to second base before a single from Malik Stephens scored Walsh to tie the game 3-3. Pitching took over the next two innings until Stephens hit a single as the second batter in the seventh inning. After a sacrifice bunt from Halas put Stephens on second, a Tristan Clarke single through the hole at shortstop made Stephens turn on the wheels as he scored from second to give the Bulldogs the lead. Clarke, who moved to third on a Ridout single, scored on a Alo. Cruz fielder's choice to make the score 5-3 at the end of the seventh.
The ninth inning was almost a complete replica of the seventh, starting off with a Stephens double followed by a Halas sacrifice bunt to move him a base. Just like the seventh, a Clarke single through the hole at shortstop scored Stephens to make it a three-run advantage. A ground out moved Clarke to second before Dakota Phillips singled to right field to score Clarke, giving Tennessee Wesleyan the final score victory of 7-3.
Clarke (two RBIs) and Alo. Cruz (three RBIs) led the offense for the Bulldogs. Daniel Tolano kept his record spotless, going 7.0 innings while giving up six hits, three runs and striking out six batters in his eighth win of the season.
The second game saw TWU score two quick runs once again, starting with Halas' single. Halas moved into scoring position on third base off two wild pitches and after a Ridout walk put runners on the corners, Phillips blasted a double to deep center field to score both Halas and Ridout. A solo home run from Alf. Cruz in the second inning made the score 3-0 but the shutout ended after the third inning on a Skyhawks score. Stephens' homer in the fourth inning made the score 4-1 but Point brought themselves back within one run, scoring two runs over the fourth and fifth innings to make the score 4-3 at the beginning of the sixth.
Braden Mosley opened the sixth inning with a walk and moved to second on a Lang sacrifice bunt. Alf. Cruz double down the line scored Mosley to give the Bulldogs a two-run cushion. Stephens' connection with the ball caused a bobble by the first baseman, allowing Stephens to get to first and Alf. Cruz to score. Stephens gave Tennessee Wesleyan three runs in the inning when he scored off Clarke's single to make the score 7-3. Looking like the Bulldogs were going to walk off the field with their sixth-straight win, the Skyhawks scored five in the bottom of the seventh, including a walk-off grand slam, to snap the winning streak.
Phillips and Alf. Cruz both finished with two RBIs in the game for TWU. Carson Bach got the start on the mound for the Bulldogs.
With the loss, Tennessee Wesleyan (31-18, 18-6) moves to the second spot in the AAC standing with one conference series remaining. There is still a path to the #1 seed in the AAC Tournament for the Bulldogs, beginning with winning all three games against their last conference opponent, Milligan College. Since TWU owns the tiebreaker over Reinhardt University, the team also needs the Eagles to take two of the three games against Bryan College.
The next time the team will be in action though will be in non-conference play when the Bulldogs host Hiwasse College for a single nine-inning game. The two teams take to the diamond on Tuesday. First pitch is set for 3:00 PM.