The Oglethorpe baseball team improved to 4-0 on the young season Saturday with a doubleheader sweep of the Curry Colonels at Anderson Field. The Stormy Petrels defeated Curry 4-1 in the first game and 7-2 in the 7-inning second game, completing a 3-game sweep of the Colonels.
In the first game, the respective starting pitchers pitched very well over the opening three innings, not allowing either team to score. Curry scratched across a run in the fourth to take a 1-0 lead, but the Petrels responded in the fifth. Sophomore first baseman Dee Kelly led off the inning with a single down the right field line and junior shortstop Gabriel Selochan followed with a single of his own, putting two runners aboard with nobody out. Sophomore center fielder Britton Araujo sacrificed the two runners into scoring position and senior designated hitter Spencer Transue followed with an RBI groundout, scoring Kelly. Then with two outs, sophomore left fielder Jarvis Miller ripped a single to center and scored Selcohan, giving the Petrels the lead.
Sophomore catcher Adrian Celata homered to right-center to lead off the sixth, expanding the Petrel lead. The two run cushion proved enough for sophomore right-hander Matt Davis, who picked up his first victory of the season with six innings of 5-hit, 1-run baseball. He struck out five, as well. Junior sidearmer Sam Traxler relieved Davis in the seventh and picked up where he left off. He wound up with the save, as he went three innings without allowing a hit and struck out three.
The Petrels picked up an insurance run in the eighth when Celata reach on a 2-base error, was advanced to third on a groundout, and scored on a sacrifice fly from junior right fielder Brandon Fish.
In the second game, Oglethorpe senior starter Kyle Mitchell worked his way in and out of trouble over the first few innings, leaving a total of five Curry baserunners on base between the second and the third. The Petrels then broke through with a big 4-run fourth.
They loaded the bases to start the inning, then got an RBI single from freshman first baseman Andrew Mink, a two-run single from Selochan, and an RBI infield single from Miller. Curry answered back with a 2-run homer in the fifth, but senior right-hander Kolin Zimmer relieved Mitchell and settled things down after that.
The Petrels broke the game open in the sixth. They loaded the bases with one out when Miller was hit by a pitch, driving in a run. Fish followed with a 2-run double to the left-center field gap, giving Oglethorpe a 7-2 lead and putting the game away.
Mitchell secured the victory after allowing two runs on five hits over four innings. He walked four and struck out four. Zimmer pitched very effectively in relief, allowing a single hit over two innings of work, striking out a pair of Colonels.
"It has been a really good start to our season," said Oglethorpe head coach Dan Giordano. "We pitched and played great defense all weekend and that was the key to the sweep. Offensively, we're still trying to find our groove. We had some big hits today, though, and that will hopefully get us going. We've got a big week of baseball coming up next week, and it'll be a great opportunity for us to get better and compete against some top teams."
The Petrels will start the week in Montgomery, Alabama, where they'll take on Huntingdon, who received votes in the preseason D3baseball.com poll, at 6 p.m. Eastern. After that, they'll come back to Atlanta to take on No. 3 Emory on Wednesday at 2 p.m. before returning to Anderson Field Saturday and Sunday for the opening series of their Southern Athletic Association season against No. 8 Birmingham-Southern.