The Oglethorpe baseball team split Saturday's doubleheader with Centre at Anderson Field, beating the visiting Colonels 12-4 in Game 1 but falling 13-0 in Game 2. The results moved the Stormy Petrels to 9-17 on the season overall and 5-6 in SAA play.
The Petrels came back from an early deficit in Game 1. They fell behind 3-0 in the first inning after a two-out, three-run homer. Centre added another tally in the third to extend their lead to 4-0, but the Petrels answered with a big bottom of the third and never looked back.
After singles by senior center fielder Jacob Gassert and junior second baseman Austin Jackson to lead off the inning, senior designated hitter Andrew Mink drove a towering home run over the left field fence to make it 4-3. They added two more in the fourth on a Gassert two-run double into the gap in right-center, taking a 5-4 lead. In the fifth, the Petrels scored a run on a Centre error, then added a couple more unearned runs on a Gassert sacrifice fly and a Jackson run-scoring single. That extended the Oglethorpe lead to 8-4.
The Petrels continued adding runs over the next couple innings. A two-run homer to the deepest part of the ballpark by junior first baseman Jack Bartlewski gave his team a 10-4 lead in the sixth. In the seventh, Gassert continued his outstanding game, driving freshman left fielder Will Arnold home with a triple past the Colonel center fielder. He then scored on a wild pitch to give his team their final eight-run margin.
Freshman right-hander Jonathan Haab recovered from giving up four early runs and put together a five-inning, 11-strikeout performance. He gave out just two free passes -- one on a walk and the other on a hit batsman -- and allowed three earned runs on five hits. He picked up the victory to improve to 2-4 on the season.
Gassert led the way for the Petrels, going 3-for-4 with a triple, a double, a sacrifice fly, four RBIs, and two runs scored. Bartlewski had an outstanding game of his own, going 2-for-4 with a home run, a double, a walk, two RBIs, and two runs scored. Senior third baseman Dylan Leonard went 2-for-3 with two walks and a run scored.
The tables completely turned in Game 2, however. The Petrels managed only a single hit, coming off the bat of leadoff hitter Gassert in the first inning, and were shut out by Centre starter Chris Esselman. Oglethorpe pitching, meanwhile, allowed two runs in the first and six in the second, putting themselves behind the eight-ball out of the gate. The Colonels put it away with four more in the fifth and another tally in the seventh.
Sophomore right-hander Devlin Basinger suffered the loss, allowing five earned runs on six hits over an inning-and-two-thirds.
The Petrels will be back in action Sunday for the rubber game of the series. They'll take on the Colonels at 1 p.m. from Anderson Field. They'll hit the road for six straight after that, facing off against Pfeiffer, Birmingham-Southern and Emory.