Baseball | 3/18/2015 8:29:00 PM
Box Score FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — The Methodist baseball team extended its winning streak to five games on Wednesday night, topping the visiting Jumbos of Tufts University, 8-2. With the win, the Monarchs improve to 14-7 on the season, while the Jumbos fall to 4-3.
The Monarchs banged out 13 hits on the day, including a homerun by Alex Rodriguez in the third.
Methodist grabbed an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, scoring off a sacrifice ground out by Steven Kirby.
Tufts responded in the top of the second, scoring two for a 2-1 lead. After a lead-off walk by James Howard, back-to-back Methodist errors loaded the bases. The Monarchs were able to eliminate Tom Petry at second, but not before Howard reached home. A single by Connor McDavitt plated Nick Barker and fly outs by Cody McCallum and Matt Moser ended the inning.
Rodriguez knotted up the game 2-2 with the aforementioned homerun to left field, and the Green and Gold continued scoring in the bottom of the fourth.
MU loaded the bases with with a walk by Ray Lanners and back-to-back bunts by Stephen Nalls and Adam Gunn, and a RBI single by Colin Ford gave the Monarchs the lead at 3-2. Alex Dockery scored Nalls with a sacrifice bunt and an infield single by Chris Power plated Gunn for a 5-2 advantage. Rodriguez added another run with a single through the right side, scoring Ford.
After two scoreless innings for both teams, Methodist tacked on two insurance runs in the seventh. Kirby reached on a base knock up the middle, and scored soon after on a double by Lanners. Lanners was brought home by the next batter, Kirby, who singled through the left side and pushed MU's lead to 8-2.
Rodriguez finished 2-for-3 on the day with two RBI and one run scored while Nalls went 3-for-4 with an RBI and scored run. Dockery, Gunn, and Kirby all added an RBI apiece, and Matt Jack contributed two scored runs.
Greg Johnson was handed the win, relieving the starting pitcher, Rett Lee, and tossed for 2.0 innings with only one hit allowed. Lee pitched the first three innings for Methodist, and allowed two runs (1 ER) on four hits. Ross Leggett, Madison Cook, and Tyler Hardee all saw the mound for an inning and some change, and gave up only one hit.
Moser was 2-for-4 for Tufts, while Oscar Kutch finished 1-for-3 with an RBI.
Tom Ryan was saddled with the loss, giving up six runs on eight hits.
The Monarchs travel to Greensboro, N.C. to take on the Pride of Greensboro College in a three-game series starting on Saturday at 1 pm.
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