FERRUM, Va. -- The Ferrum baseball team held the Methodist baseball team in check in securing a doubleheader sweep of the No. 4 Monarchs on Friday afternoon.
Â
Ferrum (9-14, 7-4 USA South) took a tightly-contested contest, 2-0, in the opener, then rallied for a 5-4 win over the No. 4 Monarchs (20-5, 9-2) in the nightcap.
Â
Methodist's
Tyler Brown (6-1) was a hard-luck loser in game one, taking his first loss of the season despite allowing just two runs (1 ER). He gave up eight hits and walked one with four strikeouts.
Â
Jacob Holland picked up the win for the Panthers, striking out nine in 7.0 scoreless innings. He yielded just three hits and walked two. Luke Bryant came on in the eighth and pitched the last 1.2 innings. He gave up one hit, but struck out five.
Â
The Panthers scored a single run in the first inning, on Tim Ortega's RBI single, and added an unearned run in the fourth for the game's only runs.
Â
In game two, the Monarchs jumped out to a 4-2 lead before the Panthers scored a single run in the eighth, then two more in the ninth to eke out the one-run win.
Â
After falling behind 1-0 in the first inning, MU took a 2-1 in the second on
Tucker Criswell's solo home run and a squeeze bunt from Elliott Manley. Ferrum tied tie contest at 2-2 in the third, but two more runs in the fourth for MU put the Monarchs up 4-2.
Â
Ethan Carmack drove in
Jacob Austin with an RBI double for a 3-2 lead, and Carmack came around to score on
Matthias Carter's single back up the middle. A single run in the eighth inning pulled the Panthers to within 4-3 before they completed the rally in the ninth.
Â
Seth Beard started for MU and allowed two runs on four hits and four walks with a pair of strikeouts in 3.2 innings.
Thomas Dean pitched 3.1 innings of scoreless relief, and
Will Walker (1-1) suffered his first loss of the season, allowing three runs (2 ER) on three hits and a pair of walks.
Â
Carmack was 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored for MU.
Â
The two teams will conclude their three-game series on Saturday afternoon beginning at 11 am.
Â
Â
Â
--