GREENSBORO, N.C. – Guilford College’s baseball team used four Piedmont College errors to pull out a 5-4 comeback win in 10 innings Sunday at McBane Field. The Lions’ final miscue came on Herc Ingels’ hard-hit ground ball to second base, which scored John Macon Smith (Greensboro, N.C./Western Guilford (Western Carolina)) from third base with two outs in the bottom of the 10th.
The Quakers (1-1) fell behind 3-0 as Piedmont scored single runs in three of the first four innings. Colton Bryant doubled in the first and third frames, which helped the Lions open a three-run lead.
Justin Pittman (Trinity, N.C./Trinity) and Will Byrd had RBI hits in the Quakers’ fourth to make it a 3-2 game. Piedmont answered in the top of the fifth as Josh Bailey worked a full count against reliever Chad Wagoner (Archdale, N.C../Trinity) before poking a 3-2 pitch into left center for a two-out RBI single. Piedmont managed only one more hit off of Wagoner as the junior southpaw fanned five in five scoreless innings, both career highs.
With Wagoner shutting Piedmont out, Guilford took advantage of consecutive Lions’ fielding errors to start the seventh. Jordan Slate’s (Lexington, N.C./North Davidson) RBI single pulled the Quakers to within 3-2 and Casey Mann’s RBI groundout later in the inning tied the game at 4-4.
Tyler Tuttle (1-0) made his Guilford debut in relief of Wagoner in the 10th. The senior transfer retired the side in order, including two strikeouts looking. Smith led off the Guilford 10th with a single up the middle, took second on Kent Peterson’s sacrifice bunt and moved to third on Corey Wallace’s deep fly to center. He scored the game winner when Ingels smacked a one-hopper that skipped past Piedmont’s second baseman.
Smith and Slate both had two hits for Guilford. Bailey went 2-for-3 with a double and two RBI for Piedmont.
Guilford hosts Greensboro College Wednesday in a 2:30 p.m. contest at the Quakers’ McBane Field.
Guilford 5, Piedmont 4 (Feb 03, 2013 at Greensboro, NC)
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Piedmont............ 101 110 000 0 - 4 7 4 (1-1) Guilford............ 000 200 200 1 - 5 7 0 (1-1) ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: Piedmont – Matt Lisk; Allen Tokarz(8) and . Guilford – B. Jones-Berasaluce;
Chad Wagoner(5); Tyler Tuttle(10) and .
Win-Tyler Tuttle(1-0) Loss-Allen Tokarz(0-1) T-2:09 A-100
Weather: 46, mostly cloudy