DEMOREST, Ga. The Methodist baseball team dropped a pair of games at Piedmont University on Friday, falling in a 10-inning showdown first before suffering defeat in seven innings during the second game of the day.
THE ESSENTIALS
Final results: Piedmont def. Methodist, 7–5 (10 Inn.); Piedmont def. Methodist, 12–2 (7 Inn.)
Records: Methodist 2–10, Piedmont 9–4
Location: Loudermilk Field; Demorest, Ga.
HOW IT HAPPENED – GAME 1
In the first at-bat of the day,
Austin Rinzel produced a double. Two plays later,
Israel Ortiz was responsible for bringing Rinzel home for the first run of the game. In the top of the second,
Bronson Shaikh's RBI-double scored
Keegan Megaro to give the Monarchs a two-run advantage.
After walking the first two batters of the bottom of the second,
Jackson Kuhn conceded a run to the Lions, then saw two more runs score in the following inning as Piedmont went ahead 3–2. After a couple of scoreless frames for both sides,
Blake Freeman led off the sixth with a homerun to tie the game at 3–3.
The extra-base knocks continued for the Monarchs in the seventh when Rinzel recorded a one-out triple.
Brandon Mauger was next up to the plate and launched a ball high into the outfield, logging a sacrifice fly to bring Rinzel home for a 4–3 lead.
Bryce Mauger took the mound in the bottom of the seventh to relieve Kuhn, but with two outs, he gave up a two-run homer that allowed Piedmont to reclaim the lead (5–4).
A leadoff double by
Ethan Golemo in the top of the eighth set Methodist up to tie the game, which happened after a Megaro sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly by
Parker Evans. However, with the score tied through nine, the game went to an extra inning where the Lions were lifted to victory on another two-run homerun.
HOW IT HAPPENED – GAME 2
The Monarchs spotted Piedmont seven runs in the bottom of the first on five hits, three walks and an error. That proved to be a rather difficult hole to climb out of. Rinzel scored Methodist's first run on a wild pitch in the top of the third, while
Bryce Mauger scored the team's only other run of the game on an error in the seventh.
Methodist went through five pitchers in seven innings, with
Zach Megaro proving to be the most efficient with just one hit, no walks, one strikeout and no runs allowed in 1 inning of work.
STAT FACTS
Rinzel continued to see the ball well as he had lately, batting 4-for-7 on the day as the leadoff man.
The Monarchs tallied seven extra-base hits in the first game on Friday, including five doubles.
UP NEXT
Methodist takes on Piedmont on Saturday in the series finally beginning at 2 p.m.
