The Oglethorpe baseball team struggled early on in their SAA Baseball Tournament opener against Berry Friday afternoon at Striplin Field in Birmingham, Ala., and were never able to recover, falling to the Vikings 10-3 and dropping into Saturday's first elimination game. With the loss, the Stormy Petrels are now 25-14 on the season.
The Petrels got behind the eight-ball early on in this one, allowing seven runs in the second inning. Oglethorpe sophomore starter Matt Davis went just 1-1/3 innings and allowed seven runs on five hits, walking four and striking out one. He went on to suffer the loss on the afternoon, dropping to 7-2 on the season.
After that, the Petrels tried to claw their way back into the game but found the going tough against Berry starter Ben Jernigan, one of the better pitchers in the league. They got a run back in the bottom of the second, as junior second baseman Keith Dearden led off the inning with a double, advanced to third on a groundout, and scored on a sacrifice fly from senior outfielder Joey McAlpin. They then picked up additional runs in the fourth and sixth innings. Dearden reached on an infield single in the fourth with two outs and scored on a double from freshman catcher Adrian Celata on the next batter. In the sixth, junior shortstop Spencer Transue singled to lead off the inning, advanced to second on a groundout, and scored on a Dearden single. However, the Vikings added on a single run in the fourth and two in the sixth, never letting Oglethorpe back into the game.
Dearden had an excellent afternoon at the plate for the Stormy Petrels, providing the majority of the team's offense on the day. He went 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI, and two runs scored for the game.
The Petrels got solid work in relief from sophomore right-hander Sam Traxler and junior right-hander Kolin Zimmer, as they combined for 7-2/3 innings of three runs and eight hits.
"We just played our worst game of the year at the wrong time," said Head Coach Dan Giordano. "Matt has been so good for us all year and just struggled to find the zone. I feel for him because he wants to win so badly. We'll rebound from this and come back stronger tomorrow. Now it's all about surviving and advancing."
The Petrels will play the loser of the first round game between top-seeded Birmingham-Southern and eighth-seeded Centre in an elimination game Saturday at 4 p.m. Eastern. If they're able to win, the Petrels will then move on to a second elimination game Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. Eastern against the loser of Saturday's winner's bracket game.