SEWANEE, Tenn. - The University of the South baseball team took two out of three from Messiah University (Pa.) in a crazy weather weekend from Montgomery Field.
Scheduled to play one game on Saturday, the Tigers and Falcons were halted after three and a half innings after a third fog delay. The game resumed at 10 a.m. on Sunday with Messiah holding a 5-1 lead. Sunday morning, the Tigers rallied to defeat the Falcons, 10-9.
The teams agreed to play a doubleheader with both games consisting of seven innings. Messiah picked up the win, 8-3, in the second game of the series before the Tigers cruised to a 6-1 dub in the series finale.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP
Final Score, Game 1: Sewanee 10, Messiah 9
Final Score, Game 2: Messiah 8, Sewanee 3
Final Score, Game 3: Sewanee (7-1-1) 6, Messiah (2-4) 1
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HOW IT HAPPENED, GAME 1
-During Saturday's portion of the contest, Messiah got out to a 4-0 lead as the contest went into the bottom half of the third. Sewanee struck the scoreboard in the frame on a
Hunter Herndon base hit through the left side, after
Blake Pou tripled with two outs.
-Messiah scored two runs in the fourth before the game was called and pushed to Sunday.
-When play was picked back up, Sewanee tacked on its second run of the game on a
Emmett DeScherer base knock to score
Will Yarbro.
-In the fifth, the Purple Tigers continued to chip away at the deficit with a two-run double by Yarbro.
-Messiah responded in the sixth with two insurance runs to pad the lead to three runs, 7-4.
-The visitors recorded single runs in the seventh and eighth to make it a 9-4 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.
-The rally caps, and a lot of patience in the Sewanee bats, came through in the bottom of the ninth. Both
Oliver Snell and
Blake Pou started the inning with free passes before the Falcons made changes on the mound. However, the erratic bullpen was in Sewanee's favor, as Herndon reached on the free pass to load the bases. Next,
Jack Roode was plunked with a pitch, which led to a run.
-Trailing 9-5, the fifth batter in the inning in Yarbro recorded the first hit of the inning with an infield knock to score a run.
Mike Lewishall followed with a five-pitch walk to keep the merry-go-round going as Herndon scored.
-Following a second pitching change by the Falcons, the Tigers, trailing 9-7, recorded their first out of the inning. A productive out, DeScherer fouled out to deep left field to score Roode.
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Alden Wright followed with a game-tying base hit up the right side. After another mound visit and a strikeout, Snell, who is hitting for the second time in the inning, was hit by a pitch to reload the bases for Pou. On a 3-1 count, he would coax the walk-off walk to score Lewishall and win, 10-9.
HOW IT HAPPENED, GAME 2
-The second game started with a lot of offense in the opening frame. Messiah put a four-spot in the top half of the inning, capped by a Sam Zercher home run.
-In the bottom of the inning,
Hunter Herndon responded with a one-out solo shot to make it a 4-1 deficit. Later,
Will Yarbro laced a double to score Lewishall.
-However, that would be as close as the Tigers would get. In the third, a leadoff homer by Joshua Ammons made it a 5-2 affair in favor of the visitors.
-Sewanee cut the deficit back to two runs, 5-3, on a Herndon base knock. Messiah essentially put the game away with a run in the sixth and two in the seventh.
HOW IT HAPPENED, GAME 3
-After the Falcons dented the scoreboard first in the series finale, the Purple and White came back with three in the bottom half of the opening inning. Three straight Tigers reached to start the inning, capped by a
Jack Roode RBI single. After
Will Yarbro moved the runners along to second and third,
Mike Lewishall dropped a sacrifice fly to score
Hunter Herndon.
-Sewanee added two more in the bottom half of the second on a two-run RBI double by
Luke Thompson.
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TJ Meyn added an insurance run in the sixth to make it 6-1 in favor of the home team.
-In the seventh,
Jake Nevle, who was cruising through six, ran into trouble on the mound. After loading the bases, the Tigers turned to
Henry Collins in the bullpen. Despite the 6-1 lead, the contest was forced to a save situation, and Collins was cool on the mound, posting back-to-back strikeouts and a foulout to end the game.
SEWANEE KEY STATISTICS
-Recording a hit in each game of the Sewanee's series win with Messiah,
Hunter Herndon had a 6-of-9 weekend at the plate with a homer and three RBI. Scoring five runs on the weekend, Herndon went a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate and reached base all four times up in the final game of the series with two runs scored.
-In the series finale,
Luke Thompson had two hits and RBI each.
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Blake Pou had a 2-for-3 day at the plate with three walks in Sewanee's come-from-behind win.
-In game one,
Henry Shields (2-0) picked up the win in relief with 2.2 scoreless innings. Allowing two hits and one unearned run, he punched out four batters.
-Despite running into trouble in the seventh,
Jake Nevle (1-0) tossed six-plus innings of three-hit, one-run ball with eight strikeouts.
Henry Collins (2) earned the save with two strikeouts and leaving the bases loaded in the final game.
MESSIAH KEY STATISTICS
-Joshua Ammons had a 7-for-9 weekend at the plate with five runs scored and two RBI.
-Nathan Stein (1-1) earned the complete game in the second game of the series, allowing three earned runs on seven hits and eight strikeouts.
UP NEXT
Sewanee is back in action at home next weekend, as the Tigers host the Panthers of Birmingham-Southern College. The No. 4 team in the country makes the trek to the Domain on Saturday.
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