DEMOREST, Ga. — No. 7 ranked Birmingham Southern defeated Marietta College by the score of 3-1 in the opening round of the NCAA South Regional Wednesday (May 13) evening on the campus of Piedmont College. The Pioneers will face Rhodes College, a 7-4 winner over Methodist University, Thursday at 3:30 p.m.

Marietta (28-17 overall) jumped on top with a run in the first. Tim McCoy walked on four pitches to lead off the game and moved into scoring position on a sac bunt from Mitch Geers. Ryan Hanahan singled putting runners on the corners and Chris Winpigler followed with a sac fly scoring McCoy.

The lead was brief as Birmingham Southern (35-10-1) smacked a pair of doubles in the bottom half of the first to tie the game, 1-1.

With two of the top pitchers in the country going toe to toe in Marietta's Christian Herstine and BSC's Blake Stevens, the game settled into an old fashioned pitcher's duel. Neither team scored over the next four innings.

The Pioneers threatened in the third when McCoy ripped a one-out triple down the right field line. McCoy was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a ground ball to third base off the bat of Geers.

Birmingham Southern grabbed the lead with an unearned run in the sixth. A pair of two-out singles followed by a catcher's interference call loaded the bases for the Panthers. Herstine then walked David Bourbonnais forcing the go ahead run across the plate.

BSC extended its lead with one in the seventh. David Scott led off with a single and was sacrificed to second. Taylor McCracken singled and Matt Brown walked to load the bases. Herstine appeared to get out of trouble with a strikeout of Jacob Mayfield, however the third strike was in the dirt and got away far enough to allow Scott to score.

In the meantime, Stevens was mowing down the Pioneer hitters. Marietta managed just three hits over the final eight innings as Stevens notched the complete-game victory.

Stevens (9-2) scattered four hits and gave up just one run in 9.0 innings of work. He walked two and struck out nine.

Herstine (6-4) tossed 7.0 innings and was charged with three runs, two earned, on seven base hits in the losing effort. He walked three and struck out four. Freshman David Stover allowed one hit in an inning of relief.

Hanahan was the lone Pioneer with two hits going 2-for-4. McCoy had a triple and Austin Harvey a single.