Baseball | 2/17/2012 11:05:00 PM

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. - The Monarchs took on two top teams Friday and lost 5-4 to Frostburg State and 10-5 to Birmingham-Southern.

Methodist (5-2) and Frostburg battled it out through nine innings in the second game of the day with the Bobcats narrowly edging the Monarchs. Frostburg scored first after a lead-off walk and double, but Methodist came right back and tied it in the bottom of the inning. Cody Molosky singled, stole second and then moved to third on Trey Such's single. Tyler Younger doubled deep to right field to score Molosky. The Bobcats used two hits in the third to go ahead 2-1 and capitalized on a Methodist error in the fifth to go ahead 4-1.

The Monarchs responded in the bottom of the fifth sparked by a double from Molosky. Brandon Thigpen drew a walk and Such loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch setting up Younger to single through the left side for two RBI. Frostburg added a run in the eighth after a lead-off double before scoring on a pinch hit single. Methodist came up empty in the bottom of the eight before rallying in the ninth. Thigpen led off with a double and scorer on an error, but the Bobcats retired three straight batters to secure the 5-4 win.

Younger finished 3-for-5 with three RBI while Such was 2-for-4 and Molosky was 2-for-5. Andrew Womble pitched four innings with six strikeouts while Rett Lee and Dylan Moore finished in relief.

Methodist hoped to regroup in the final game of the day and things looked optimistic when Matt Quick led off with a double. He moved to third on a balk and scored easily on Molosky's groundout. Thigpen followed it up with a bomb deep over the fence in right field to give the Monarchs the early 2-0 lead. Birmingham-Southern responded in the third, stringing together four hits for two runs of their own. The game was knotted at two until the Panthers had two big innings in the sixth and seventh. Birmingham-Southern led off with a triple and added a single to move ahead 3-2 before a walk and three-run homerun put the Panthers up 6-2.

The Monarchs looked to counter in the bottom of the sixth with two runs of their own on a two-RBI single from Younger to cut the lead to two runs, but the Panthers came right back with four runs on five hits in the seventh. Molosky led off the eighth with a triple and scored on Thigpen's groundout, but the deficit was too much as Birmingham-Southern took the 10-5 win. 

Younger went 3-for-4 finishing 6-for-9 on the day. Thigpen went 2-for-4 with two RBI while Quick and Molosky had one hit apiece. Chris Perry went four innings with seven strikeouts while Michael Judge took the loss in relief. Chris Barger, Greg Scassera, Josh Clarke and Reid Berry also saw time on the mound.

Methodist will be back in action on Saturday when they host Lynchburg College at 5 p.m. in the final game of the Invitational.

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