The Oglethorpe baseball team brought out the bats in a big way Sunday morning at Anderson Field, defeating the visiting Rhodes Lynx 18-6 in seven innings and taking the three-game series. With the win, Oglethorpe improved to 4-7 on the season overall and 2-1 in SAA play.
After Rhodes scored a single run in the top of the first, the Petrels answered with four of their own. Senior first baseman Andrew Mink singled to left to drive in junior second baseman Austin Jackson and tie the score. That put runners at the corners with nobody out, but Rhodes hurler Nick Bosma struck out the next two Petrels and was on the verge of getting out of the inning without further damage. However, freshman catcher Alec Babb legged out an infield single to put the Petrels ahead and keep the inning going. After that, senior third baseman Dylan Leonard and sophomore center fielder Shota Barbeau both singled and drove in additional runs, giving the Petrels their 4-1 advantage.
Jackson tripled to lead off the second and senior right fielder Patrick Burnette followed with a single up the middle to score him and give Oglethorpe a 5-1 lead. Rhodes added a run on a third-inning homer, but the Petrels started to break the game open in the fourth. Jackson scored an unearned run off a Lynx error, then Mink followed with a two-run shot to extend the Oglethorpe lead to 8-2.
The fifth inning proved to be a nightmare scenario for Rhodes, as they allowed nine runs in the frame. Six of them were unearned, as the Lynx committed seven errors in the inning. The Petrels brought 13 men to the plate and knocked five hits. A Mink bases-clearing double proved to be the big blow in the frame.
The Petrels added another unearned run in the sixth. Rhodes tallied four runs in the seventh inning, but it wasn't enough to stop the 10-run rule from being enacted, as the game was stopped after seven innings with the Petrels winning by 12.
Oglethorpe got a good start from junior right-hander Noah Cole. He went six innings and allowed two runs on four hits, walking just one and striking out four.
Jackson had an outstanding day, going 4-for-4 with a triple, a double, a walk, and four runs scored. Mink went 3-for-4 with five RBIs and three runs scored.
"It was a complete team effort this weekend," said Oglethorpe head coach Dan Giordano. "Our pitchers challenged the strike zone, our defense made plays, and we had some really good at-bats throughout the weekend. As a young team, we're trying to find our identity, and hopefully this weekend will go a long way toward establishing who we are. We had a lot of outstanding individual efforts, but I'm really happy with the team attitude and the way our guys are coming together."
The Petrels will hit the field again on Wednesday when they host Emory at 6 p.m. on Anderson Field. It'll start a series of six games in seven days for the Petrels, all at Anderson Field.