WINCHESTER, Va. – No. 1/1 Shenandoah University baseball has likely locked up the top seed at next week's ODAC Tournament by splitting a doubleheader with Virginia Wesleyan Saturday afternoon.
Shenandoah (33-5, 16-4 ODAC) rallied for an 8-7 win in game two after the Marlins (20-18, 11-9) were 14-8 victors in the opener.
Trailing 7-1 heading into the seventh inning of game two, SU rallied with three runs in the seventh and four more in the eighth to register the comeback victory.
Senior Abel Arocho, who finished the game 4-for-5 with four RBI, drove in the tying run with a double into the gap in right that brought Robert Marcelle and Dan Cameron.
One batter later, Tristan Baker singled through the right side and Arocho came around to score what proved to be the game-winning run.
The four-run inning, in which all four runs were unearned due to an error on Nick Goode's one-out fly to right, came off of Marlins closer Riley Koonce (2-4).
Koonce gave up the four unearned runs on four hits while striking out one.
The comeback also made a winner of Hornets closer Tyler Hott (4-0). Hott, the third pitcher of the game for coach Kevin Anderson, pitched the final 5.0 innings and allowed just one hit and two walks while striking out two.
Jake Loew backed up Arocho with a 2-for-4 contest that included a run batted in.
Marcelle also had two RBI.
In game one, Shenandoah held a 6-2 lead after two but saw the Marlins score four in the fourth and eight in the sixth to rally for the 14-8 win.
Andrew Lowe (1-1) the third of five pitchers for VWC, got the win with 4.0 innings of relief.
Steve Jones (1-1) took the loss for the Hornets. He gave up four runs on five hits in 2.0 innings.
Baker and Arocho each had two hits with Arocho driving in four runs and Neil Dutton three.
Shenandoah will now await the official release of the ODAC Tournament pairings Saturday evening. SU will be no worse than a No. 2 seed in the tourney.
The Hornets continue this season ending homestand on Sunday with a 2 p.m. game against Capital Athletic Conference champion Salisbury.