The Oglethorpe baseball team scored a pair of runs in the ninth inning Tuesday evening at Anderson Field to come back and defeat the visiting LaGrange Panthers 7-6. Junior third baseman Austin Ferlita ripped a 2-run single to right field to provide the game-winning hit and improve the Stormy Petrels to 6-2 on the young season.
The Petrels began the ninth inning down 6-5 with the rain that had been threatening all night just beginning to fall. Sophomore Bobby Rezac pinch hit to start the inning and got hit by a pitch. After senior Alex Atteberry pinch ran for Rezac at first, sophomore center fielder Britton Araujo followed with a perfectly-placed bunt single and both he and Atteberry advanced an extra base on a LaGrange error. With runners at second and third and nobody out, the Panthers made a pitching change and brought side-arming closer Blake Schuck into the game. He intentionally walked freshman first baseman Andrew Mink to load the bases with nobody out. Ferlita followed by smashing a ground ball through the right side of the infield. With Araujo being waved around, LaGrange right fielder Blane Swift slipped on the wet outfield grass and the Oglethorpe center fielder came home with the winning run. The rain picked up in earnest as the Petrels celebrated their victory behind second base.
The exciting ninth inning came after the Petrels had squandered a 5-1 lead after three innings. The Panthers brought home three runs in the fourth to pull to within a run and followed with single runs in the fifth to tie the game and the sixth to take the lead. They held that advantage into the ninth as the Panthers' Andrew Weekley, who wound up suffering the loss in the end, went 5 1/3 innings allowing a single Petrel hit.
The Petrels looked like they might blow the game open early in the third, when they pushed four runs across on LaGrange starter Toby King. Araujo was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning, then Ferlita walked two batters later and sophomore catcher Adrian Celata followed with a single to load the bases with one out and set the stage. Junior right fielder Brandon Fish followed with an RBI groundout to give the Petrels the lead. Senior second baseman Keith Dearden served as the next better and he launched a 3-run homer over the left field fence to give the Petrels a 5-1 advantage.
After LaGrange took a 1-0 lead in the first on a solo home run from first baseman Cain Sauls, the Petrels answered right back to tie the game. Mink singled through the left side and Ferlita walked. With two outs in the inning, the two advanced on a wild pitch and Fish followed with an infield single that scored Mink and tied the game.
Junior right-hander Justin Thigpen picked up the victory in relief for the Petrels, improving to 1-0 on the season. He pitched the ninth inning and worked around a hit and an intentional walk without allowing a run.
Ferlita went 2 for 3 with a double, two walks and a run scored to go with his two RBIs on the game-winning single. Left fielder Jarvis Miller went 2 for 4 with a stolen base.
"This was such a tremendous bounce back win for us early in the season," said Oglethorpe head coach Dan Giordano. "It was a fun game with both teams playing good baseball. Ferlita told me after [hitting a double to the deepest part of the ballpark in] his previous at-bat that he would win the game for us if he got another chance. As a team, I'm proud of the fight we showed to get this win. We have a big series this weekend and it's always nice to have some momentum going into an SAA series."
The Petrels will take on Millsaps in a 3-game set Saturday and Sunday. Saturday will feature a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. and Sunday's single game gets started at noon. After that, the Petrels will held south for the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational, where they'll play five games in as many days in Winter Haven and Auburndale, Florida.