The Oglethorpe baseball team faced the 25th-ranked Piedmont Lions in Demorest, Georgia, for the second time in as many weeks Tuesday. Unlike the game on Feb. 13, Piedmont never really struck a finishing blow. However, the Stormy Petrels couldn't get much from the bats Tuesday night and they fell 5-2. The loss dropped Oglethorpe to 2-6 on the young season.
Oglethorpe managed just five hits, and no Petrel had more than a single hit in the contest. The nine Petrel hurlers did a fairly good job of holding the Lions in check, scattering nine hits.
Piedmont took a 2-0 lead in the second off freshman lefty Noah Schroyer and added another in the fifth off sophomore right-hander Devlin Basinger in his first outing of the season.
The Petrels answered back with single runs in the sixth and seventh to make it 3-2. A leadoff walk from senior right fielder Patrick Burnette was followed by a ringing double off the bat of junior designated hitter Jack Bartlewski. Burnette couldn't score on the extra-base hit, but he did come in on a groundout by senior left fielder Jacob Gassert to make it 3-1. In the seventh, junior catcher Dylan Childress doubled and advanced to third on a two-out wild pitch. He then scored on a Piedmont error, cutting the Lion lead to a single run.
However, the home side immediately answered with two in the bottom half of the inning, erasing Oglethorpe's hard work over the previous two innings and giving themselves a 5-2 lead. The Petrels left a runner at third in the eighth and were unable to put any more runs on the board.
Bartlewski, Childress and senior first baseman Andrew Mink all doubled for the Petrels, while Burnette and freshman shortstop Billy Finch both singled for their lone hits of the contest. Schroyer suffered the loss and fell to 0-1 on the year, allowing two runs on two walks and three hits over an inning of work.
The Petrels now get set to open SAA play, as they'll host the Rhodes Lynx at Anderson Field in a three-game series Saturday and Sunday. The first pitch of Saturday's doubleheader is scheduled for 2 p.m., while Sunday's single game gets started at noon.