The Oglethorpe baseball team fell to No. 14 Birmingham-Southern in Birmingham, Ala., today, 9-0, falling to 4-5 on the season overall and 0-3 in SAA play after suffering a sweep at the hands of the home-standing Panthers.
The Stormy Petrels got solid pitching over the first four innings, but never could get anything going offensively against the highly-ranked Panthers. They managed just four hits over the course of the game in comparison with Birmingham-Southern's nine and committed three errors to BSC's two.
The Petrels got a decent starting performance from junior Joseph Marco, as he went 4-1/3 innings allowing four runs on six hits, walking a pair and striking out three. He was stuck with the loss, however, dropping to 0-1 on the season. The Petrels also get a quality relief performance from sophomore Dan McBryan, who went 1-2/3 innings and allowed just one hit. Sophomore Justin Thigpen pitched in some tough luck, allowing a pair of unearned runs over an inning of work despite not allowing a hit or a walk.
The team had a tough day at the plate. No Petrels had more than one hit and the squad grounded into three double plays. Freshman catcher Adrian Celata, sophomore right fielder Brandon Fish, junior first baseman Keith Dearden and freshman second baseman Matt Motz collected a hit apiece.
The Petrels had their best chance of the game in the top of the third. Fish singled up the middle to lead off the inning and senior left fielder Andre Turnquest walked with two out to put runners at first and second. However, Birmingham-Southern got out of the inning and then took a 2-0 lead in the fourth. They followed with two more in the fifth and three in the sixth, building a 7-0 advantage through six innings. They added on two insurance runs in the eighth, as well.
"We didn't just didn't bring our best to the ballpark today," said Head Coach Dan Giordano. "I know there is more in this team than we showed this weekend. We'll get back to work tomorrow and continue to improve."
The Petrels will prepare to go on a spring break road swing next week, traveling to Jacksonville, Fla., to take on Trinity Baptist in a three-game series before continuting to Montgomery, Ala., to take on Huntingdon on Tuesday and to Jackson, Miss., for their next SAA series against Millsaps the following weekend.