The Oglethorpe baseball team split their doubleheader with the Hendrix Warriors Sunday afternoon at Anderson Field, moving to 9-14 on the season overall and 5-7 in SAA play. The Stormy Petrels came back from a tough 13-10 loss in Game 1 to score a run in each of their final three innings at the plate and win the second game 6-3.
The Petrels and Warriors traded runs in the third and fourth innings, as they each scored two runs in the former and a single run in the latter. After Hendrix took a 2-0 lead, Oglethorpe responded with a pair on RBI singles by junior left fielder Will Arnold and sophomore first baseman George Krivsky. Hendrix responded with another run in the fifth, and the Petrels came back with an RBI single from sophomore second baseman Jonathan Cruz in the bottom half of the inning to tie it 3-3.
Meanwhile, junior Andrew Noack was pitching an excellent game in relief. After moving from third baseman to pitcher in the fourth, he allowed a single run on two hits and three walks over four-plus innings.
The Petrels took the lead on an RBI groundout by senior center fielder Chris Keane in the sixth, then got a big boost when Noack helped his own cause with an RBI double in the seventh. Cruz homered over the left-field fence in the bottom of the eighth to extend the Oglethorpe lead to three runs.
Freshman right-hander Colby James entered for Noack in the eighth and proceeded to mow down the Warriors for his second save of the weekend. The only baserunner he allowed was on a hit batsman through two innings of work, and he struck out a batter. The save ensured Noack of his first career win.
Cruz went 3-for-4 with the home run and two RBIs, while Noack went 2-for-3 with a walk, an RBI, a run scored and a stolen base.
Game 1 proved wild from start to finish - a seven-inning game that ran 3 hours and 11 minutes, and featured 23 runs, 26 hits and seven errors combined. The Petrels led 9-3 in the fifth after exploding for three runs each in the fourth and fifth innings. Run-scoring singles from sophomore pinch-hitter Carson Weir, Krivsky and Noack gave them a 6-3 lead in the fourth, then Krivsky followed up with a two-run double in the fifth to push Oglethorpe's lead to six runs.
However, Hendrix scored 10 runs over the final two innings. They tallied four in the sixth to pull to within a couple, 9-7. The Petrels responded with a run of their own on an Alec Babb RBI single in the bottom of the inning to take their lead back out to three runs, 10-7. From there, Hendrix exploded for six runs to turn the tables on the Petrels.
Keane suffered the loss in relief, allowing six runs on six hits in an inning-and-a-third. Three of the runs were unearned, though, providing the winning margin for the Warriors.
Freshman shortstop Gabe Bryant went 3-for-5 from the leadoff spot, scoring three runs and stealing a base. Krivsky also went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and a run scored.
The Petrels travel to Memphis, Tennessee, next weekend to take on Rhodes. They'll play the Lynx in four games total, with doubleheaders both Saturday and Sunday.