The Oglethorpe baseball team was engaged in a back-and-forth contest with No. 21 Piedmont for awhile Tuesday night at Anderson Field, with the Stormy Petrels coming back from five runs down early in the game to tie the score. However, the visiting Lions eventually pulled away for a 9-6 win, dropping the Petrels to 10-7 on the season.
After the two teams had gone back and forth for much of the opening five innings, the Lions used a 3-run sixth inning to post the difference in the game. A 2-out, 2-run single served as the big blow in the inning and gave Piedmont all the runs they would need.
It came after a rousing Petrel comeback. They fell behind 5-0 over the first inning-and-a-half, but responded quickly. They clawed out a couple of runs in the second on an RBI groundout by senior second baseman Keith Dearden and an RBI single by sophomore catcher Bobby Rezac. That made the score 5-2, but the Petrels came all the way back in the bottom of the third.
Sophomore left fielder Jarvis Miller walked to lead off the inning, then advanced to third on consecutive wild pitches. Sophomore designated hitter Adrian Celata followed with an RBI groundout, making the score 5-3. Junior right fielder Brandon Fish continued the inning with a single and sophomore first baseman Dee Kelly followed with a single of his own. That brought Dearden to the plate, and he laced a single to left field, scoring Fish. The Piedmont left fielder let the ball get under his glove and roll to the wall, though, allowing Kelly to come around and score, too, tying the game up.
Piedmont retook the lead in the fifth after putting runners on second and third with nobody out in the inning. However, Petrel senior right-hander Kolin Zimmer did a good job of working out of the jam, only allowing a single run on an RBI groundout. The Petrels tied the game right back up in the bottom of the inning when Kelly reached on an error, advanced to second on a groundout, and scored on a double to left-center from Rezac, making it 6-6. The Lions pulled away with their 3-run sixth, though.
Zimmer suffered the loss, throwing a couple of innings and allowing four runs on five hits, walking a batter in the process. He fell to 1-1 on the season.
Fish went 2 for 3 with a double, two walks and two runs scored, while Dearden and Rezac both went 2 for 5 with two RBIs.
"It was a good ball game tonight, we just came out on the wrong end of it," said Oglethorpe head coach Dan Giordano. "We had some chances offensively to score a few more runs and just couldn't come up with the extra hit to break it open. Their bullpen is as good as it gets, but we battled. We've got a chance to get back in the win column tomorrow."
The Petrels travel to Montgomery, Alabama, to take on Huntingdon at 6 p.m. Eastern on Wedensday. After that, they'll head further west to Conway, Arkansas, where they'll resume SAA play with a 3-game series against Hendrix Saturday and Sunday.