College Baseball Finals – Guilford 11–5, Muhlenberg 1–4

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Guilford College’s Eric Yost struck out seven in game one of Saturday afternoon’s doubleheader while John Todd struck out nine in a complete-game effort as the Quakers earned a sweep of Muhlenberg College. The Quakers took game one, 11-1, and the nightcap, 5-4, both in seven-inning contests.

Josh Shepherd tripled to lead off the first contest and Trevor Denton hit a sacrifice fly to right field to bring him home as the Quakers (13-6) responded to a Muhlenberg (4-7) one-run rally in the top half of the first inning. John Icaza reached on catcher’s interference and Matt Riebesell brought him home on a two-out single to claim an early lead.

The Quakers moved base runners around in the bottom of the second inning as Michael Pinkston drove home the first run of the half-inning on a fielder’s choice and Shepherd grounded out to drive home the second run of the frame. Guilford dominated the bottom of the third frame where the Quakers posted four runs before an out was recorded. Anrdew Brann sparked the rally with a three-run home run near the left field foul pole, his second home run of the season.

Guilford posted four runs with no outs while Shepherd’s sacrifice fly, bringing home the fifth run, recorded the first out of the inning. Mitchell Stumpo sparked a two-out rally with a double and later scored as Logan Washle drove him home with his third single of the day. Trevor Denton added a two-out RBI-double one inning later as the lead grew to nine. Andrew Munster provided an exclamation point for the Quakers with a pinch-hit home run to left field, posting Guilford’s 11th run as the Quakers cruised to victory.

Both sides scored in every inning for the first three innings of game two in a back-and-forth affair. A Brann double sparked Guilford’s first rally in the bottom of the first inning and Stumpo capped the rally by bringing Brann home with two outs, completing the three-run rally to respond to Muhlenberg’s early strike. The Mules tied the game one half-inning later in a two-run rally where they posted four hits in a rally capped by Eric Reitmeyer’s two-out single.

Rocco Wilcox put the Quakers back in the lead in the bottom half of the frame with a two-out single to right field after a Ryan Hill (Asheboro, N.C./Southwestern Randolph) double with one out. After a Muhlenberg response to tie the game, Washle recorded his fourth single of the game with a one-out RBI to left field.

Todd (4-0) picked up the pace from the fourth inning onward as he recorded six strikeouts for the rest of the game and faced no more than four batters as the Quakers held off the Mules to earn the sweep.

Yost (2-3) collected the game one win, giving up no earned runs on just five hits and two walks in his seven-strikeout effort. Joe LeNoir threw the final two and one-third innings without a hit, walking one and striking out one.

Timmy Pilrun (0-1) took the game one loss for the Mules, walking three and striking out one in the two-inning start. Sam Kasten (0-2) took the game two loss walking two and fanning two in the four-inning start.

Washle hit four-for-six over the afternoon to the lead the Quakers at the plate, including a three-for-three effort in game one. Brann finished three-for-five with four RBI over both games while Wilcox was one of two Quakers with multiple hits in game two, batting two-for-three with one RBI. Michael Pinkston added two RBI in game one.

Chris Grillo led the Mules, batting three-for-eight over the afternoon with a game two double. Reitmeyer finished two-for-four in game two with a pair of RBI, representing the second of two multi-hit efforts in the afternoon for Muhlenberg.

The Quakers enjoy the mid-week off before returning to Old Dominion Athletic Conference play next Saturday, hosting nationally-ranked Randolph-Macon College for a 3 p.m. contest.