Baseball | 3/8/2013 7:37:00 PM

Box Score FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Piedmont's Kevin Caldwell allowed just two runs over 8.0 innings as the Lions posted a 6-2 win over Methodist at Armstrong-Shelley Field on Friday evening.
 
Caldwell picked up the win despite hitting five batters on the day. He allowed two runs on seven hits and one walk with four strikeouts. Josh Thomas pitched a perfect ninth for the Lions (10-7, 7-3).
 
Piedmont took a 4-0 lead in the fifth inning, scoring all of their runs with two outs. Dale Bartek led off the inning with a single and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt. He took third on a passed ball and after Keith Grabowski walked, MU's Aaron O'Neill struck out Michael Barnes for the second out of the inning. However, a walk to Josh Bailey loaded the bases and Logan Pethel followed with a two-run single for a 2-0 lead. A walk to Evan Greshman loaded the bases again and Kevin D'Antignac followed with another two-run base hit, this one to center as Piedmont went up 4-0. Josh Ayers came on in relief of O'Neill and got James Moyer to ground out to end the inning.
 
The Lions added a single run in the sixth on Grabowski's sacrifice fly to center to make it a 5-0 game.
 
MU (7-11, 4-9) got single runs in the seventh and eighth inning to pull within 5-2. In the seventh, Chris Power beat out an infield single to third that plated Steven Kirby. In the eighth inning, Will Sutton hit a sacrifice fly to left that allowed Tyler Younger to come in and make it a 5-2 contest.
 
Piedmont capped the scoring with a single run in the ninth inning as Grabowski scored on one of Methodist's three errors on the day to make it 6-2 in favor of the Lions.
 
O'Neill took the loss (0-2), allowing four runs on five hits and five walks with two strikeouts in 4.2 innings. Michael Judge pitched the final 4.0 innings, giving up two runs (1 ER) on three hits and a walk with one strikeout.
 
Younger was 1-for-2 with a run scored and was hit by a pitch twice. Sutton finished 1-for-4 with an RBI and Brandon Thigpen was 1-for-3 for the Monarchs.
 
Michael Barnes was 2-for-5 for Piedmont and Grabowski was 1-for-1 with three walks, a pair of runs scored, a stolen base and one RBI. Tate Koons finished 1-for-3 with a run scored .
 
The Monarchs and Lions will square off against the Monarchs once again on Saturday beginning at 2:00 pm.