The Oglethorpe baseball team started off their season on a high note Tuesday evening at a wet Anderson Field. They stormed to a 5-1 lead over the visiting Covenant Scots over the first four innings, then hung on in the later frames for a 6-5 season-opening victory.
The Stormy Petrels entered the seventh inning up 6-4, but senior right-hander Joe Marco gave up a 1-out single and Luke Harvey of Covenant advanced to third on a stolen base and a throwing error by sophomore catcher Adrian Celata. The next batter drove Harvey in to make it a 6-5 game, but at that point, the rain, which had been off and on all night, started to get heavier and forced a 32-minute delay. Marco retook the mound after the break and got back-to-back outs to get the Petrels out of the jam and maintain the single-run lead.
In the eighth, Marco allowed a leadoff walk and the Scots subsequently moved that man over with a sacrifice bunt. Junior right-hander Justin Thigpen then relieved Marco, but Scot catcher Z Arimafollowed with a single on a 2-strike pitch to put runners at the corners with one out. The Scots used a pinch-runner for Arima at first, and Thigpen immediately picked him off for a huge second out. The Petrel right-hander then got a strikeout to get out of the inning.
The Petrels again didn't pick up any insurance in the bottom half of the inning, but Thigpen came back out and mowed down the Scots in the ninth inning. He set the top of the Covenant order down in order to secure the save for himself and the victory for Marco.
Other than the eighth-inning jam, the biggest pickle Oglethorpe found themselves in might have been in the fifth. Trailing 5-1 entering the frame, Covenant quickly put their first four batters of the inning aboard, scoring on a bases loaded walk and a 2-run single to pull to within a single run with nobody out in the inning. With runners at first and second, senior right-hander Sam Franklin induced an infield fly on the next better, but freshman first baseman Andrew Mink lost the ball in the lights and the raindrops. The ball fell to the turf with the infield fly rule in effect, and Covenant's Devin Cerrato took off when he saw the ball fall. Oglethorpe senior second basemanKeith Dearden was able to pick up the ball and fling it to junior Austin Ferlita at third, completing a bizarre double play. After that, Marco relieved Franklin and induced a groundout to get out of the inning with the lead still intact.
The Petrels jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first when Celata skied a ball down the right field line with Ferlita at first and two men out. The ball was just out of the grasp of the diving Scot right fielder and, by the time he was able to run the ball down in the corner, Celata had an RBI triple. After Covenant tied the game in the top of the second, the Petrels answered in the bottom half of the inning with a 2-run bomb from junior right fielder Brandon Fish after Mink walked to lead off the inning. The Petrels continued to add on over the next couple innings, getting an RBI single from Mink to drive in Ferlita in the third and scoring on a wild pitch in the fourth.
Oglethorpe was led offensively by Celata, who went 3 for 5 on the evening with the RBI triple.Ferlita and senior shortstop Spencer Transue both scored two runs on the night while Fish finished with two RBIs, both on his long ball. The Petrels banged out nine hits in the game to Covenant's eight and seven members of the Oglethorpe starting lineup collected at least one.
"I couldn't be happier with the effort tonight," said Oglethorpe head coach Dan Giordano. "This was a complete team win. Coming out of the gate, we just wanted the guys to play hard and play with great effort. They certainly did that tonight. Our pitchers made some big pitches when they had to, as well, and I thought we played solid defense. Hopefully, we can build off this victory going into the weekend."
On the weekend, the Petrels welcome Curry to Anderson Field for a 3-game set, with a contest at 7 p.m. Friday and a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday. After that, they'll hit the road for a pair of difficult midweek contests at Huntingdon and No. 3 Emory before returning home the following weekend to take on No. 8 Birmingham-Southern in the SAA opening series for both teams.