Baseball Final – Hampden-Sydney 8, Guilford 2

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Dan Nicoll and two relievers yielded just four hits in Hampden-Sydney College’s 8-2 win over Guilford College Thursday in the first elimination game of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament at City Stadium.

Patrick Kuhns and Hunter Lewis both had four hits for the Tigers (20-20), who avenged two regular-season losses to the Quakers (16-24). Hampden-Sydney gets to play another elimination game Friday at 3:00 p.m. in the six-team, double-elimination tournament versus either Lynchburg College or Randolph-Macon College.

After Guilford scored an unearned run in the first on Will Cornelius’ (Summerfield, N.C./Northwest Guilford) bases-loaded walk, the Tigers answered with their own unearned tally in the second before breaking the game open with a five-run third. Hampden-Sydney chased Guilford starter Borja Jones-Berasaluce (2-5) by putting its first seven batters on base via hit or walk. Reliever David Thomson got the Quakers out of the inning, but not before the Tigers took a 6-1 lead.

Kuhns plated his second run of the day with an RBI double in the fifth that made it a 7-1 game while Nicoll (3-2) kept the Quakers’ bats in check. The sophomore right-hander left after giving up a run and three hits in the sixth inning. Luke Rabiej came on and threw two perfect innings before Aaron Stidham closed the game with a scoreless ninth.

The contest marked the final college game for Guilford’s 11 seniors, including first baseman Kyle Wooden, who ends his career as the Quakers’ all-time leader in batting average (.436) and slugging percentage (.699). The 2011 ODAC Player of the Year hit .467 in his final season, second only to his school-record .514 average in 2009. He also matched the Guilford season standard with 17 doubles.

Hampden-Sydney 8, Guilford 2 (Apr 21, 2011 at Lynchburg, VA)
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Hampden-Sydney...... 015 010 010  -  8 16  3      (20-20)
Guilford............ 100 001 000  -  2  4  2      (16-24)
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Pitchers: Hampden-Sydney - Dan Nicoll; Luke Rabiej(7); Aaron Stidham(9) and Zach Harrelson.
Guilford - B. Jones-Berasaluce; David Thomson(3); Zach Daw(5); Micah Denny(7);
Micah Winterstein(9) and Will Cornelius.
Win-Dan Nicoll(3-2)  Loss-B. Jones-Berasaluce(2-5)  T-2:35  A-175
Weather: Cloudy, 60s, Winds: 5-10 SW
Game notes:
Old Dominion Athletic Conference Tournament Game #4
With its second tournament loss, Guilford is eliminated.
Thomson faced 3 batters in the 5th.
Daw faced 2 batters in the 7th.
Game: GCB-40