The Oglethorpe baseball team had a tough day to open their season Sunday afternoon at Anderson Field, falling to the visiting Maryville (Tennessee) Scots in a pair of contests, 9-5 and 9-2. The Stormy Petrels led early in the first game, but a 4-run fifth inning turned the tables in the Scots' favor for that contest and they continued the momentum into Game 2.

After Maryville scored 2 runs in the top of the second, the Petrels responded with an RBI double by junior second baseman Alex Featherstone on which another run scored on an error, tying the score 2-2. Featherstone later came around to score on a wild pitch, giving his team a 3-2 lead. The Scots tied the game back up in the third, though, then tallied 4 runs off of Petrel reliever Devlin Basinger, including a bases-clearing triple which scored 3 unearned runs after an Oglethorpe error extended the inning a batter earlier. Basinger went on to suffer the loss, as the Petrels couldn't get anything else going until they were down 9-3 in the late innings. They scored a run off a wild pitch in the eighth, then took advantage of a couple Maryville errors to bring six men to the plate in the ninth. Their only run came on a Rajan Sampat sacrifice fly, though, and they fell 9-5.

Oglethorpe senior left-hander Kyle Babb pitched well to start Game 2, allowing just a single run on four hits through four innings. The Scots exploded for 5 runs in the fifth, though, breaking the game open 6-0. The Petrels pulled a couple back off an infield hit by Sampat and a sacrifice fly from sophomore third baseman Andrew Noack, making it 6-2, but Maryville added 3 more runs over the next two innings, putting the game away.

Babb suffered the loss, throwing six innings and allowing 6 runs on nine hits, recording a walk and three strikeouts. Freshman center fielder Carter Guarino went 3-for-4 in Game 2, scoring a run. 

The Petrels are scheduled to return to action Tuesday night at Anderson Field, when they take on LaGrange at 7 p.m., weather permitting.