The Oglethorpe baseball team continued their stretch of 1-run games in SAA play on Saturday in Memphis, Tennessee, as they played the homestanding Rhodes Lynx in a pair of them at Rhodes' Stauffer Field. The Stormy Petrels came back to win 3-2 in the second game after falling 5-4 in Game 1.
The Petrels got an outstanding start from junior left-hander Kyle Babb in Game 2, as he threw six of the game's seven innings and allowed just one run on three hits, walking two and striking out three.
The game went into the seventh inning tied 1-1, but the Petrels got a rally going in their final at-bat. Junior pinch-hitter Dylan Leonard got things started with a single to center field, then sophomore pinch-hitter Ethan Edwards doubled to left center and advanced Leonard to third with one out. Senior center fielder Jarvis Miller was next up, and he ripped a double to center field to score both Leonard and Edwards and give the Petrels a 3-1 lead.
In the bottom half of the inning, sophomore right-hander Jack Bartlewski entered the game in attempt to close it out for his fifth save of the year. The first hitter of the inning reached on an error, and advanced to third on a single with one out in the inning. The Lynx scored on a fielder's choice to make it 3-2, but there were two outs in the inning at that point. With the potential tying run at first base, Bartlewski got a ground out to end the game and preserve the 3-2 Oglethorpe win.
Babb got the win to improve to 3-2 on the season, and Bartlewski did indeed pick up his fifth save of the campaign.
Oglethorpe fell behind 1-0 in the third inning, but they tied the game in the sixth inning on a solo home run by senior designated hitter Adrian Celata, setting the stage for the seventh-inning heroics.
In Game 1, the teams traded early runs to make the score 1-1 headed to the fifth inning. The Petrels got their run on an RBI single from Miller in the third. The Lynx came up with a big fifth inning, though, scoring four and giving themselves a 5-1 advantage. Oglethorpe fought back in the eighth, as the inning started with back-to-back homers from senior right fielder Patrick Burnette and Celata to make it 5-3. Sophomore first baseman Andrew Mink followed with a triple, and he scored on a single to center by senior second baseman Matt Motz to make it 5-4.
The Petrels left Motz on first, though, and were unable to get a runner past first in the ninth inning.
Sophomore right-hander Noah Cole got the start and suffered the loss to fall to 2-1 on the season. He allowed three earned runs on 10 hits over five innings.
"I thought our guys battled all day," said Oglethorpe head coach Dan Giordano, "and I loved how we continued to fight. Babb was outstanding once again, and i can't say enough about our guys coming off the bench in big spots. Leonard, Hiner and Ethan had great pinch-hit at-bats for us today. We gave ourselves a chance to win the series tomorrow."
The Petrels now sit at 15-7 for the season overall and 5-3 in SAA play. They'll be back at Stauffer Field at 1 p.m. Eastern on Sunday, looking to take the rubber game of the 3-game set. After that, they'll return to Anderson Field for eight straight home games, starting with a Tuesday non-conference tilt against Calvin at 4 p.m. The Petrels welcome Sewanee to Atlanta next weekend for a 3-game SAA set.