The Oglethorpe baseball team was locked in a tight, back-and-forth contest with the visiting Millsaps Majors on a beautiful Sunday afternoon at Anderson Field. However, Millsaps pulled away late with nine runs over the final three innings, defeating the Stormy Petrels 16-7 and dropping them to 7-4 on the season overall and 2-4 within the Southern Athletic Association.
The score was tied 7-7 after six innings amid what had been a back-and-forth affair. Millsaps scratched out a pair of runs in the seventh on a hit, three walks and a suicide squeeze, then came back with an unearned run in the eighth on a sacrifice fly. The Petrels were still in it headed to the ninth, down 10-7, but the Majors exploded for six runs in the inning, essentially putting the contest away.
Until that point, the game had featured wild swings from inning to inning. After Millsaps scored four runs in the top of the third to take a 4-2 lead, the Petrels responded with a pair to tie the game. Junior third baseman Austin Ferlita walked and sophomore catcher Adrian Celata homered to even the score.
In the fourth, Millsaps scored two more on a double and an RBI groundout, but Oglethorpe responded in the bottom of the fifth. Three straight singles from the heart of the Petrel order loaded the bases with nobody out and senior second baseman Keith Dearden reached on a fielder's choice on which the Majors got no outs due to a throwing error. After a strikeout, sophomore catcher Bobby Rezac came to the plate and grounded into another fielder's choice, which was enough to get Celata home with the tying run, making it 6-6.
Millsaps again pushed a run across in the sixth, scoring on a throwing error by Rezac as he tried to prevent a runner from advancing on a wild pitch. Oglethorpe again came back in the bottom of the inning, though, as freshman first baseman Andrew Mink doubled with one out and Ferlita flied out to deep center, advancing him to third. Celata came through again as the next batter with an infield single that picked up some weird spin as it bounced off the mound, making it difficult for Millsaps shortstop Drew Wray to handle. The score was tied at 7-7, but it was the last time Oglethorpe would push a run across on the afternoon.
Oglethorpe got off to a 2-0 lead early. They scored a run in the first when sophomore center fielder Britton Araujo reached on a 2-base error and then came around to score on a pair of groundouts. They added an additional one in the second when Araujo singled home Rezac after the latter doubled with one out.
Senior right-hander Joe Marco gave up the two runs in the seventh and suffered the loss, dropping to 1-2 on the season. He didn't allow a hit in his inning of work, but gave up the pair of earned runs and walked three Millsaps hitters. Celata had the best day at the plate for the Petrels, going 4 for 5 with a home run, 3 RBIs and 2 runs scored.
As a team, the Oglethorpe pitching staffed walked 11 Millsaps hitters and hit three more. In addition, Oglethorpe committed four errors to Millsaps' two. The Majors outhit the Petrels 17-11 on the afternoon.
"It was just a tough day for us on the mound today," said Oglethorpe head coach Dan Giordano. "You can't give away as many free bases as we did today and expect to win games, especially against good teams. We hung tough and battled, but it caught up with us in the end. We'll regroup this week and get back to our winning ways."
The Petrels will now set out for central Florida, where they'll take part in the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational Tuesday through Saturday. They'll take on Coe Tuesday at 9 a.m. from Winter Haven, Florida, then take a day off before heading a short distance to Auburndale, Florida, to play Rhode Island College in a doubleheader beginning Thursday at 12:30 p.m. They'll head back to Winter Haven Friday at 9 a.m. to go against Thomas More before ending in Auburndale Saturday at 9:15 a.m., where they'll take on Central (Iowa).