Baseball | 3/22/2013 9:52:00 PM

Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- The Methodist baseball team swept an afternoon doubleheader from Maryville on Friday afternoon at Armstrong-Shelley Field, taking game one, 2-1, before pulling way late for an 11-4 win in the nightcap.
 
The Monarchs, who have now won three straight, improved to 11-15 on the season and 7-10 in the USA South, while the Scots fell to 12-13 overall and 7-10 in conference play.
 
In the opener, Daniel Royer picked up the win, tossing 7.2 innings of scoreless ball. He allowed five hits and walked eight with four strikeouts as Maryville left 15 runners on base. Mikie Morrison pitched the final 1.1 innings to earn the save. He allowed one run on three hits with one strikeout.
 
Methodist took a 1-0 lead in the first inning when Steven Kirby led the off the inning with a single and moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt by Chris Power. Brandon Thigpen followed with a ground ball to first that was misplayed by Zack Blonder that allowed Kirby to score from second for the game's first run.
 
In the fourth inning, Methodist doubled its lead to 2-0 when Travis Johnson drove in Power with a groundout to second base.
 
The Scots, who left runners on base in each inning but the sixth, managed a single run in the ninth when they loaded the bases with one out on an error and singles by Nick Dean and Landon Talley. Blonder followed with an RBI single through the left side to make it 2-1 and keep the bases loaded. Morrison then struck out Andrew Mabini and got Travis Scates to ground out with the bases loaded to end the game.
 
Maryville had threatened in the eighth inning, but Cody Molosky gunned down Talley at the plate as he tried to score from second to keep the Scots off the scoreboard.
 
The Monarchs, who were limited to just three hits, were led by Kirby, who finished 1-for-3 with a runs scored. Power walked twice and added a run scored and Molosky was 1-for-3. Kirby and Power added a stolen base apiece as well.
 
Matt Dyer took the loss for Maryville. He gave up two runs (1 ER) on three hits and three walks with five strikeouts in 8.0 innings. Talley finished 2-for-3 with two walks and a stolen base and Blonder was 2-for-5 with a run driven in.
 
In the nightcap, Methodist broke open a 1-1 game in the seventh with six runs, only one earned, to take a 7-1 lead en route to the seven-run win.
 
After each team scratched across a run in the fourth inning, the Monarchs benefited from a catcher's interference call with two outs in the seventh to open the flood gates. Brent Shelton lined out to lead off the inning and Stephen Nalls followed with a pop out before David Lutz singled with two outs. Molosky then reached on the aforementioned interference call and Kirby was plunked by a pitch to load the bases. Power drew an RBI walk to push MU ahead 2-1 and Thigpen ripped a single just inside the bag down the first base line to drive in two more and push the Monarch lead to 4-1.
 
Tyler Younger followed with a triple to right center that plated two more runs for a 6-1 lead and Johnson followed with the Monarchs' fourth hit of the inning to drive in Younger and make it 7-1.
 
Maryville answered with three runs in the eighth, including Garrett Gresham's two-run double, to pull within three runs at 7-4, but MU added four more runs in the bottom of the inning, to keep the Scots at bay.
 
Michael Inman picked up the win with 7.0 strong innings. He gave up one run on eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 7.0 innings. Michael Judge and Josh Clarke added a run of scoreless relief each. Trevor Brackett was saddled with the loss, surrendering six runs (1 ER) on eight hits and two walks with two strikeouts in 6.2 innings.
 
For Methodist, Thigpen finished 2-for-4 with three RBIs and two runs scored. Johnson was 3-for-4 with an RBI, Molosky was 2-for-3 and scored twice and Power was 1-for-3 with a walk, two RBIs and a run scored.
 
Mabini had four hits in five at bats for the Scots and he scored once. Talley was 3-for-5 with a run scored and Nick Dean finished 2-for-4 with an RBI.
 
The Monarchs and Scots will wrap up their three-game set on Saturday at 1:00 pm at Armstrong-Shelley Field.