Baseball | 3/10/2013 7:35:00 PM

Box Score FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The Methodist baseball team dropped a 4-1 decision to Piedmont in the rubber match of a three-game series on Sunday afternoon at Armstrong-Shelley field.
 
Piedmont's Matt Lisk limited the Monarchs to just one run on five hits in 8.0 solid innings of work. He walked one batter and struck out eight. Josh Thomas came on in the ninth and worked around a leadoff walk to earn the save.
 
The Lions opened the scoring with a single run in the first inning when Keith Grabowski walked and then took third on a throwing error by MU's Daniel Royer. Casey Parham's groundout drove in Grabowski and made it 1-0. Piedmont made it 2-0 in the third inning on Grabowski's RBI single to left that scored Tate Koons.
 
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Brandon Thigpen led off with a double and then came around to score on Chris Power's triple to right field to make it 2-1 in favor of the visitors. The Lions added two more runs in the fifth inning, including Josh Bailey's RBI single, to take a 4-1 lead and cap the scoring.
 
Royer took the loss for the Monarchs, surrendering four runs (2 ER) on four hits and two walks with three strikeouts in 5.0 innings. Chris Barger and Mikie Morrison each tossed 2.0 innings of scoreless relief for MU.
 
Thigpen led the Monarchs at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a run scored. Travis Johnson was 1-for-3 with a walk and Power finished 1-for-3 with a walk and a run driven in.
 
Bailey was 2-for-5 with an RBI for Piedmont and Grabowski finished 1-for-3 with a walk, a run, an RBI and he was hit by a pitch. Koons added one hit in four at bats and scored twice with a stolen base.
 
Methodist will host Lynchburg on Tuesday beginning at 2:00 pm.