FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- Tyler Hardee lined a walk-off single to center field in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Methodist baseball team rallied for a 6-5 win against Virginia Wesleyan at Armstrong-Shelley Field on Wednesday night.
 
With the score tied at 5-5, the Monarchs (16-20) started the bottom half of the extra frame as Brennen Brown singled through the left side of the infield and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Lucas Scott. Tucker Criswell drew a walk to put runners on first and second and forced a pitching change. With a new pitcher on the mound, Hardee drove a 1-2-pitch over the head of the center fielder to score Brown from second and gave MU a 6-5 win.
 
The game-winning single was Hardee's lone hit of the game. Brown and Pete Wildeboer each went 2 for 4 at the plate as the Monarchs combined for nine hits in the victory.
 
The Marlins (18-15) got on the board first in the second frame. The visitors took advantage of two batters being hit by a pitch before an RBI-double to left by Brandon Kussmaul scored Taylor Erby, 1-0. The lead held until the home half of the third. Will May started the inning with a lead-off double to left before moving to third on a sacrifice bunt by Davis Cass who also reached base on a throwing error. Matthias Carter followed and also put down a bunt that let May score on a fielder's choice to tie the contest. Brown dropped down a third consecutive bunt to move both runners into scoring position as Scott grounded out to first that scored Cass, 2-1. The Monarchs added one more run on a single by Criswell that scored Carter, 3-1.
 
In the top of the fifth inning, the Marlins tied the game and caused a pitching change. Three batters were walked to go along with a pair of hits to tie the game, 3-3. Va. Wesleyan also left the bases loaded after Sam Berman struck out the final two batters of the inning as the visitors stranded a total of 15 runners. In the following inning, VWC added another run to take the lead off an RBI-double to left that followed a triple by Corey King, 4-3. Once again, the Marlins registered another run in the seventh frame on a two-out RBI triple, 5-3.
 
The game was tied up in the seventh inning as the Monarchs loaded the bases and struck for three hits. Alex Kachler started the rally with a one-out double to center and was followed by Cass who was hit by a pitch. Carter singled to load the bases before Brown hit a hard grounder to shortstop that scored Kachler from third. Cass scored on the following at-bat as Scott grounded out to first, 5-5.
 
Logan Haines moved to 3-0 on the season after tossing 1.2 scoreless innings on the mound. He did not allow a base hit and only gave up one base runner. Hardee also started on the mound before moving to the designated hitter slot. He pitched 1.0 innings and scattered two hits. The Monarchs used 10 pitchers in the win.
 
For the Marlins, Glen Pizzanello was strapped with the loss after yielding one run on two hits in 2.2 innings of relief. Jay Crusemire started on the hill and worked 6.2 innings. He surrendered five runs (3 ER) on six hits with four strikeouts and a walk.
 
Four Marlins recorded two hits in the loss, including Kussmaul and J. Erby who each had two RBI. VWC totaled 11 hits on the night.
 
Methodist returns to action on Saturday, April 22, with a doubleheader at Covenant with the first game scheduled to begin at 12 pm.