GREENSBORO, N.C. – Posting six runs in the third inning, the Guilford College baseball team (2-0, 0-0 ODAC), led by the efforts of Rylan Smith (Archdale, N.C.) and Ryne Rodrigues (Summerfield, N.C.) blitzed Southern Virginia University (2-1, 0-0 USA South) 13-8 on Tuesday afternoon at Edgar H. McBane Field.
Marcello Ricigliano (Kernersville, N.C.) got the ball for the Quakers to make his first start of the new season, but was only tasked with 1.0 inning and was perfect in it with a strikeout. He did not qualify for the victory that was ultimately awarded to Sam Melton (Carterville, Ga.) by scorekeepers' decision to improve to 1-0. He went 2.0 scoreless innings allowing one hit and one walk against one strikeout. GC tagged Knights' starter Carson Bybee to the tune of ten runs, nine of them earned, on ten hits and a walk over just 2.2 innings, taking the loss to fall to 0-1.
For the second-consecutive day, Smith was not retired by the opposition as he finished 5-for-5 with a pair of two-baggers, scoring twice and driving in four. Rodrigues also caught a pair of doubles, finishing 4-of-5 while scoring once and driving in two. Skyler Dark (Pleasant Garden, N.C.) finished 2-of-4 with a walk, a steal, an RBI, and three runs scored. Carter Blum (McLeansville, N.C.) only had three plate appearances but went 1-for-2 with a double, and was hit by a pitch once while scoring twice and driving in two more.
Four of SVU's ten hits were off the bat of Mitch Smith who went 4-of-5 including a double with a run driven in. Stockton Hall drove in three runs and scored once himself and Ryan Farris went 2-for-3 with a homer and two walks, scoring twice and driving in one.
Following Ricigliano's flawless top of the first, GC went to work immediately against Bybee. Dark singled through the right side, stole second, and came home on a Smith single through the shortstop hole. Grayson Tudor (Reidsville, N.C.) followed with a knock before Rodrigues' first double to dead center and a Chris Shoemaker (Winston-Salem, N.C.) sacrifice fly staked GC to a 3-0 lead.
After the Quakers tacked on two more on a Smith two-run double in the second, Southern Virginia got on the board in the top of the third. With the count 1-0, Farris got one he liked and drove it over the Greensboro Monster in left-center for his second home run of the season. However, any momentum the Knights gained, was swiftly snuffed out. Rodrigues and Shoemaker opened the frame with singles and a Jordan Burrough (Greensboro, N.C.) HBP loaded the bases. Gavin Fleming (Gibsonville, N.C.) singled in a run, although another was thrown out at the plate before a popout got SVU on the verge of getting out of it. However, Dark singled in one, Blum dumped a floating double into left-center that scored both runs, including Dark on close play at the plate, making the score 9-1 and prompting a pitching change. Ben Agnew entered for the guests and Smith greeted him with a single, and Tudor hit one on the ground that ate up the Knights' first baseman to plate Blum. Rodrigues' second two-base hit scored one more as Guilford's lead had ballooned to 11-1.
SVU did cut into the deficit with five runs on five singles and two walks in the fifth inning, although GC countered with two runs on a Smith infield hit and Aidan McCandless (Burlington, N.C.) scoring on a wild pitch in the home half. The Knights pieced together two runs in the top of the eighth, and were on the verge of making things really interesting with the tying run in the hole, but Jack Ratliff (Greensboro, N.C.) entered for the second-straight day and got out of the jam before finishing things with a scoreless ninth for a 13-8 Quaker victory.
Guilford hosts their first doubleheader of the year next when Bob Jones University comes to town on Saturday, February 22nd. First pitch of game one is set for noon.
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