#2 Baseball Finishes Florida Trip 3-0; Gets Second Day Wins Against Spring Arbor and #1 Southeastern University

Lakeland, Fla.- The baseball team partook in the second day of games down in Lakeland, Fla., on Wednesday. After the rain changed the original schedule, the #2 team in the NAIA was set to play two games. The first game was going to be against the Spring Arbor University Cougars, a team the Bulldogs played the previous day and beat 7-2. The day ended with a game baseball fans had circled on their calendars, even more so after the release of the first regular season ranking which jumped TWU to #2. That game saw the Bulldogs take on #1 team in the NAIA, the Southeastern University Fire.

Game 1: Spring Arbor
Tennessee Wesleyan started scoring early and they did not stop, to the tune of 19 runs. The first four came in the first inning with two outs on the board. Aloysius Cruz, Manny Perez, and Braden Mosley loaded the bases via walks and the fourth consecutive walk of the inning by Adrian Marquez forced Cruz home. Alex Flock came to the plate and scored Perez and Mosley with his single. Max Draijer brought the last run of the inning when his single scored Marquez.

Six more runs came in the second inning. With Tyler Reichenborn and Cruz on second and first respectively, two wild pitches scored Reichenborn and placed Cruz on third. Perez's single scored Cruz and the bases became loaded again off a Mosley single and Marquez walk. A wild pitch moved everyone a base, making the score 7-0 when Perez crossed home plate. The last three runs of the inning came from a two-RBI double by Jhosmel Rodriquez and a sacrifice fly by Corey Wynant.
Alex Balter contributed a run after getting on via a walk. After an Addison Adams hit by pitch, Mosley hit a ball down the left field line, scoring Balter. A sacrifice fly by JW Ray made Adams one of the many runs scored for the Bulldogs and the score became 14-1 when Draijer doubled to left field, scoring Mosley and Marquez. Five runs in the sixth inning in the form of Wynant, Malik Stephens, Dan Fry, Mosley, and Marquez got TWU to the magic 19 number, giving them an 18-run win.

Draijer and Mosley each finished 3-4 from the plate. Draijer finished with four RBIs while Mosley had three. The team had 15 hits in the game. Gavin Roberson struck out four batters in picking up the win.

Game 2: #1 Southeastern University
The first strikeout of the game did not come until the second inning. Unfortunately, it came in the form of a two-run homer by the Fire. Tennessee Wesleyan came back to tie it in the third inning, when Rodriquez, who got on via a walk, scored on a double by Reichenborn. A sacrifice fly by Fry tied the game when Reichenborn scored.

The Bulldogs took the lead in the third inning. After Anthony Williams and Mosley walked, a throwing error on Shamoy Christopher's hit scored Williams to make the score 3-2. A wild pitch doubled the score when Mosley crossed home plate. Stephens, pinch-running for Christopher, scored on a Southeastern error to make TWU's lead three runs. The host Fire cut the lead to one when they scored two runs in the bottom half of the third inning.

Stephens added a run to the Bulldogs' side in the sixth inning, scoring on a Reichenborn fielder's choice. The score stayed a one-run lead for Tennessee Wesleyan as Southeastern scored a run in the bottom half of the sixth inning. Another two-run homer by the Fire put the Bulldogs back in a deficit, making the score 7-6.

The eighth inning turned the game back to TWU's favor. Rodriquez, via a walk, and Marquez's single put the Bulldogs back in business as the chance to tie the game or take the lead appeared. A flyout on the next batter put the second out on the board and kept the runners in a standstill. Fry changed things when his ball dropped in left field, scoring both Rodriquez and Marquez to give Tennessee Wesleyan an 8-7 lead. The last six outs needed to complete the comeback were recorded, giving the Bulldogs the win in the showdown of the top two teams.

Williams led at the plate, going 2-4 in the game while Fry had three RBIs in the game, none bigger than his final two. Philip Sieli got the start on the mound, finishing the game with a no-decision as Jack Granath got credited with the win.

#2 TWU (18-2) stays on the road when they hop back into Appalachian Athletic Conference play, taking on Union College in a three-game weekend series. The teams will start with a single-game on Saturday beginning at 2:00 PM and finish with a doubleheader on Sunday in Barbourville, Ky.