The Oglethorpe baseball team had a chance to pick up a top 25 win Tuesday night at Anderson Field against No. 20 Piedmont, leading 2-1 with two outs in the ninth inning. It wasn't to be, however, as the visiting Lions tied the game in the ninth and scored two in the 10th to win it 4-2. With the loss, the Stormy Petrels fell to 5-12 on the season.
Piedmont struck first in the fourth inning on a bases-loaded walk, taking a 1-0 lead. However, Oglethorpe senior right-hander Caleb Feibus got out of that jam allowing only the single run. The Petrels responded in the sixth.
A one-out single by junior first baseman Jack Bartlewski began the rally and sophomore catcher Alec Babb walked behind him to put two aboard. With two outs, sophomore shortstop Alex Featherstone also walked and junior Ethan Edwards earned a pinch-hit RBI getting hit with a pitch, tying the game at 1-1.
The teams traded scoring chances to no avail in the seventh, but in the eighth, Featherstone hit a one-out single and sophomore center fielder Shota Barbeau bunted him over to second. With two outs, senior right fielder Patrick Burnette came through with a looping line drive to center field, scoring Featherstone and giving the Petrels a 2-1 lead.
With Bartlewski on the mound, the Petrels were within an out of winning the game. Lion leadoff hitter Andrew Burden walked to start the inning, but a couple of groundouts moved him to third and brought the Petrels to the brink of victory. However, Evan Meade singled up the middle to tie the game 2-2.
In the 10th, Piedmont used back-to-back doubles to take the 3-2 lead with one out in the inning. They got a sacrifice fly to double their advantage 4-2 and Oglethorpe was unable to mount a rally in the bottom half of the inning.
Both teams struggled to convert scoring chances all night long. The two sides combined to leave 28 men on base, with Piedmont leaving 15 and Oglethorpe stranding 13. Piedmont left the bases loaded in the third and fourth innings, scoring only one run out of those two frames. They also stranded an additional runner on third in the fifth and seventh innings. The Petrels left the bases loaded in the fourth and sixth innings, combining for only one run over those two frames.
Piedmont outhit the Petrels 8-6 and their hitters earned nine walks to Oglethorpe's five.
Freshman right-hander Drew Snow got the start for the Petrels and went three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and working around three walks with three strikeouts. No Petrel pitcher allowed more than two hits in their outing, but senior right-hander Tristen Powell suffered the loss as he allowed the pair of 10th-inning runs on two hits.
The Petrels will be back in action this weekend, when they travel to Tennessee to take on Sewanee in a three-game SAA series. They'll take on the Tigers in a doubleheader Saturday beginning at 1 p.m. EDT, then close the series on Sunday with a single game at 1 p.m.