No. 11 Baseball Wins Shootout Against Reinhardt in Sweeping Series

WALESKA, Ga.- The baseball team finished the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) series against the Reinhardt University Eagles with two wins on Saturday. The team swept the series with 19-15 and 8-4 wins.

Game One:

Two home runs in the first inning helped the Bulldogs score five runs. The home runs came after the team's first run of the game. The first run of the game came after Rob Gordon got on base with a single, stole second and third, and scored on David Ballenilla's double. Allan Gil Fernandez hit the first home run of the inning with Ballenilla standing on second. Kolton Reynolds hit the second home run with Brayan Espinoza standing on base, giving the team a 5-0 lead. 

The Bulldogs moved their score to double digits in the third inning. Fernandez began the inning with a solo home run. Jacob Tolson brought in the next run of the inning with his single scoring Espinoza and Reece Jordan. With the bases loaded, Ballenilla hit a double that would leave him the lone runner on base, scoring on a Fernandez single to move the team's lead to 12-2 at the end of the third inning. A run by Reynolds in the fourth inning made the score 13-2.

The opponents cut into the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring five runs to make the score 13-7. TWU got the five runs back in the fifth inning, starting with a double by Ballenilla bringing in base runners Hagen Escoto and Ethan Wright. The remaining three runs of the inning came off Reynolds' second home run of the game, a three-run blast that brought in Ballenilla and Fernandez in the process, and made the score 18-7. Reynolds got the team to 19 runs in the seventh inning with an RBI double scoring Cody McGill and the Bulldogs held off Reinhardt's ninth inning rally to win the game 19-15.

Cameron Goffar got the pitching win while Koehn Thomas was credited with a save. 

Game Two:

The second game saw back-to-back four-run innings. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, it was an exchange of four runs, putting the game in a 4-4 tie after the third inning. 

TWU scored the first four runs in the second inning. Jonathan Bosque hit a single, breaking the scoreless tie when Jordan crossed home plate. An error on Gordon's hit allowed Bosque to score, moving the lead to 2-0. Wright completed the four-run inning with a two-run home run. 

The Bulldogs broke the tie in he fifth inning. The third four-run inning of the game started with Espinoza's double, bringing in Ballenilla and Fernandez. Thomas Teel brought in the remaining two runs with his double scoring both Jordan and Espinoza on the way to the team's 8-4 win.

Wright, Teel. and Espinoza all finished the game with two RBIs. McGwire Taylor was credited with the win, striking out seven batters in six innings of work.

The wins moved the team's record to 30-9 overall and 17-3 in the AAC.