No. 4 Baseball Concludes Regular Season with Sweep

BARBOURVILLE, Ky.- The baseball team closed out the regular season with two wins on Sunday. The fourth-ranked Bulldogs beat the Union Commonwealth University Bulldogs 11-4 and 13-5 to sweep the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) series. TWU won the first game of the series on Wednesday. 

Game One:

Brayan Espinoza started the scoring for the Bulldogs in the third inning. Jack Stevens and Devin Dixon each got on base and moved up a base on a passed ball. Espinoza hit a single to bring in Stevens from third. Chris Catalano followed with a sacrifice fly to score Dixon while Espinoza scored on a Daniel Stewart single. Corbin Shaw's sacrifice fly gave Josh Shelly the space to score, giving the team a 4-0 lead after the fourth.

An error helped Stevens to on base and advance to second to open the fourth inning. A second error occurred on Dixon's at-bat, getting the batter to second and Stevens home to move the lead to five runs. A sacrifice bunt by Espinoza moved Dixon to third and the runner scored on a Catalano single, giving the team a 6-0 lead after the top of the fourth inning. In the bottom of the inning though, Union scored two runs. 

In the fifth inning, the opponents scored two more runs to cut the Bulldogs' lead to just two. Shaw gave the team two of the runs back, blasting a two-run home run that brought in Kolton Reynolds as well, moving the score to 8-4. Shaw recorded two more RBIs in the sixth inning.

This time, the RBIs by Shaw came in the form of a single that Shelly and courtesy-runner Jonathan Bosque would score on, extending the lead to six runs. The final run of the game for Tennessee Wesleyan came in the ninth inning off of Catalano's second sacrifice fly, bringing in Stevens who stood on third after getting on base with a single. 

Christian Delashmit was credited with the win, striking out five batters.

Game Two:

After the third inning, the game was tied 1-1. After getting on base with a single, Shelly stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error on the stolen base. A third-dropped strikeout on Stewart's at-bat gave Shelly the space to run home, accounting for the team's run in inning. Tennessee Wesleyan blew the game open with a nine-run fifth inning. 

Catalano, Shelly, and Stewart all singled to open the inning, with Catalano scoring on the latter one to break the tie. Reynolds further extended the lead with a three-run home run. Shaw's walk was followed by a Stevens single, putting two runners on base. With the bases loaded after a Espinoza walk, a fielder's choice gave pinch-runner Nick Collins the chance to score and Stevens completed his move around the bases on a Catalano single. Back-to-back doubles completed the nine-run inning for the Bulldogs, with Shelly's scoring Catalano and Dixon, and Stewart's bringing in Shelly. 

Union scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut into the lead. 

Stewart extended the cushion for TWU in the top of the seventh inning, hitting a three-run home with Catalano and Shelly standing on base to push the team to the 13-5 win.

Blake Peyton got the start on the mound, striking out six batters in only two innings. McGuire Taylor was credited with the win.

The wins give the Bullogs (38-11, 23-7 AAC) the No. 2 seed in the AAC Tournament. The team will play their first game on Wednesday against the lowest-seed winner between the No. 5 seed Bryan College, No. 8 seed St. Andrews University, No. 3 seed Johnson University, and No. 10 seed Montreat College at 6:00 p.m on Wednesday.