BREVARD, N.C. – The Brevard College baseball team (21-17) survived a late comeback effort from the Pfeiffer University Falcons (21-20), earning a 6-4 victory on Friday afternoon at Gil Coan Field to stay alive in the 2024 USA South Conference Baseball Tournament.
 
The Falcons went on to knock off Methodist University (21-22) in game two of the afternoon, setting up a winner-take-all contest on Saturday at 9 a.m. at Gil Coan Field due to forecasted inclement weather in the Western North Carolina area. The winner will take on the victor of the three-game series between top-seed North Carolina Wesleyan and four-seed Greensboro College in the 2024 USA South Conference Championship Series, held next Friday and Saturday, May 10-11 in a three-game format.
 
Six different Tornados collected hits in Friday's matchup, with Cale Oehler connecting on a crucial two-run homer and Hayden Jennings adding a solo shot in the bottom of the eighth. Luke Morton and Frankie Vasquez each recorded RBI, while Jennings, Morton, Oehler, and CP Pyle all scored runs, with Logan Sawyer coming across twice. Pyle logged a double, and Vasquez lofted a sacrifice fly as well.
 
BC's starting pitching performance and defense were catalysts to its victory, with Jacob Thompson (4-3) hurling six innings of one-run ball, allowing seven hits with a strikeout. Cesar Rodriguez got his second save of the season, throwing three innings while allowing six hits and three earned runs.
 
Zach Ferrell led the contest off with a solo homer rocketed over the right-field fence just below the BC scoreboard. The Falcons followed suit with a single and a walk, and a fly out put runners on the corners and one out. Thompson was able to get out of the early game jam, picking Austin Wood off at first base and forcing a 6-3 groundout. Blevins made quick work of the Tornados in the bottom of the first, only needing six pitches to get through the frame.
 
A ground-ball double play and pickoff move by Thompson eliminated any scoring chance for the Falcons in the top of the second. Vasquez notched BC's first hit of the contest with a one-out infield single, and Lucas Granata drew a two-out walk, but both runners were left stranded after an infield pop-up.
 
Thompson and the Tornados worked around a leadoff walk to work through the top of the third inning. A leadoff single and walk put runners on first and second with nobody out for Brevard in the bottom-half of the frame, but a popped bunt attempt and a line out produced consecutive outs for the Falcons. A passed ball put two runners into scoring position for Oehler, who rifled a hard-hit grounder that was played on a hop by Cory Lackey to end the best scoring opportunity of the early stages for Brevard.
 
Pfeiffer was able to get a pair on via two singles, but Thompson's first strikeout of the game came at an opportune time to strand those runners on base. Colson Miller was hit by a pitch with one out in the bottom of the fourth, and Granata lofted a shallow fly ball to left-center, but Miller was forced out on the play as the center fielder collected the ball after it dropped and fired a throw into second base, halting another potential BC scoring chance.
 
Thompson worked his first 1-2-3 frame in the top of the fifth, putting away the top of the Falcon order. Sawyer led the bottom of the fifth off by reaching on a fielding error, followed by Pyle grounding a double down the left-field line to put runners on second and third with one out. Morton drove Sawyer in with an RBI groundout, and after Logan Clark was hit by a pitch and Oehler drew a walk, Vasquez plated Pyle with a sacrifice fly to give Brevard its first lead of the day, 2-1.
 
The Falcons loaded the bases in the top of the sixth, but Thompson forced a fly out to escape his last inning of work with the one-run lead. Rodriguez relieved Thompson and put a scoreless frame up in the top of the seventh inning, maintaining BC's one-run edge.
 
After Morton led the inning off with a single and stolen base, Oehler broke through with his first hit of the postseason, blasting a two-run homer over the right-field fence to push Brevard's lead to three runs. Rodriguez put another zero up on the scoreboard in the top of the eighth inning, allowing just one Falcon baserunner on a single. BC added some critical insurance in the bottom of the eighth when Jennings hit a solo home run, and Sawyer scored on a Pfeiffer throwing error.
 
The Falcons mounted a valiant ninth-inning comeback effort kicked off with a one-out single. Rodriguez was able to force Ferrell to line out to record the second out of the inning, but two straight Pfeiffer singles and a bases-loaded walk cut the deficit to four runs, 6-2. Pfieffer then scored a run on a hard-hit single up the middle, followed by a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch that cut Brevard's lead in half, 6-4. An outstanding, bang-bang play on a fielder's choice gave Brevard the win, as Morton fielded a ground ball and fired to second with the bases loaded to make the 27^th out of the ballgame and advance BC to Saturday.
 
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