The Oglethorpe baseball team faced a day of elimination games Saturday at Striplin Field in Birmingham, Ala., needing two victories to advance to Sunday's championship round of the Birmingham-Southern four-team pod. The fourth-seeded Stormy Petrels got the first game they needed Saturday afternoon, as they got a dominating 12-0 seven-inning victory over eighth-seeded Centre in the first elimination game of the day. However, they allowed six runs in the first inning against top-seeded hosts Birmingham-Southern, ranked sixth in the country, in Game 2 and could never recover, falling 11-3 to end their SAA Tournament run.
In Game 1, the Petrels jumped out early on the Colonels and never let up in a game that saw the team pick up it's 26th win of the season, which made this the winningest season in Oglethorpe'sDivision III history. In another milestone, senior left fielder Andre Turnquest collected his 34th stolen base of the season during the game, breaking the school's single-season stolen base record.
In addition, junior left-hander Kyle Mitchell was brilliant for the full seven innings, collecting his second shutout and fourth complete game of the season. He allowed just six hits over the course of the game and walked just one Centre batter.
The Petrels jumped on Centre early as Turnquest led off the first inning with a single, stole second for his 34th swipe of the season, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.Oglethorpe held that 1-0 lead into the second, when they pushed two more runs across. Freshman catcher Adrian Celata led off with an infield single, then advanced to second on a groundout and to third on a single from senior first baseman T.J. Schmutz. Senior center fielder Vernon Trice followed with a double down the left-field line to score Celata, then Trice scored on a wild pitch, giving the Petrels a 3-0 lead.
That held until the fourth, when the Petrels secured the game with a huge output of seven runs.Celata, Schmutz and Trice all walked to load the bases with two outs in the inning and the next sixOglethorpe hitters reached base through various means. Transue singled to score two and giveOglethorpe a 5-0 lead. That was followed by senior designated hitter Patrick Kulick reaching on catcher's interference after a play that looked like Centre would be out of the inning. Sophomore third baseman Austin Ferlita then reached on an error, a wild pitch scored another run and moved the other two runners up 90 feet, and junior second baseman Keith Dearden reached on a three-base error that brought two more runs to the plate. Dearden came in to score himself on another wild pitch and Oglethorpe had a 10-0 lead through four innings.
The teams had to endure a lightning delay that lasted for more than an hour in the top of the fifth, but it did not seem to stop the Petrels' momentum. They tallied two more runs in the fifth, as Trice walked and Turnquest singled. With one out in the inning, Kulick singled through the right side for an RBI and Ferlita followed with a lined sacrifice fly to center field, bringing in the final run of the game and giving Oglethorpe a 12-0 lead.
Mitchell got through two more innings without allowing a run and the 10-run rule was enacted, giving the Petrels the 12-0 victory in seven innings.
Celata wound up 2-for-2 in the mid-afternoon tilt with a walk and a run scored while Trice went 1-for-1 with a double, two walks and two runs scored. Turnquest went 2-for-4 with two runs and the stolen base.
That win kept the Petrels alive into the second elimination game Saturday night, but after Birmingham-Southern lost to fifth-seeded Berry in Saturday's early game, it meant that the Petrels would have to go through the sixth-rated Panthers to get to Sunday's championship round.
The visitors gave up six runs in the first inning, really putting themselves behind the eight-ball for the remainder of the contest. They gave up an additional run in the second inning, falling behind 7-0, before mounting a rally in the fourth. The Petrels led off the inning with back-to-back hits, a single by Dearden and a double by Celata. Then, senior right fielder Joey McAlpin came through with a two-run double down the right-field line to make it 7-2. Schmutz singled as the next batter, then McAlpin scored on a wild pitch to make it 7-3. Schmutz advanced to third on that play, but was later thrown out on a play at the plate, leaving the Petrels with a four-run deficit.
Birmingham-Southern answered right back with three more runs in the bottom half of the inning, though, and never looked back after that. They added an additional run in the seventh and cruised to the 11-3 victory, eliminating Oglethorpe from the SAA Tournament.
Junior right-hander Sam Franklin suffered the loss for the Petrels, allowing five runs on four hits over a third of an inning. He drops to 1-3 on the season. The team did get a very good relief outing from sophomore right-hander Justin Thigpen, who went four innings and allowed just one run on four hits, but it was too late by then.
McAlpin finished the second game 2-for-4 with a double, two RBIs, and a run scored. Six other Petrels collected a hit in the game, and the squad finished with eight hits.
With the loss, the Petrels fall to 26-15 on the season. They'll now have to wait and see if they might get a bid to the NCAA South Regional in Demorest, Ga., in mid-May. The teams for that and the other NCAA regionals will be selected May 10.