College Baseball Final – Guilford 7, Roanoke 2

SALEM, Va. – Trevor Denton (Mechanicsville, Va./Hanover (Pitt Community College)) threw six innings of two-hit ball and knocked in three runs, including the game-winner, in Guilford College’s 7-2 Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) baseball win at Roanoke College Tuesday night. The triumph at Salem Memorial Ballpark salvaged a split of the season series.

Denton (2-2), who made his first start as a Quaker after nine relief appearances, spotted himself a 2-0 lead with his two-run, third-inning double. The two-base hit marked his 17th double of the season, which leads the ODAC and ties Guilford’s single-season record. Roanoke tied the game when Denton yielded a run on Sam Watson’s third-inning RBI single in the third and an unearned tally in the fourth, but the junior right-hander shut the Maroons down before giving way to Logan Jones. Jones gave up one hit and two walks, but no runs in the final three frames for his first save of the season.

Denton made sure he left the game with a lead. His single to left triggered a decisive four-run, two-out rally in the top of the seventh inning. Denton’s single, one of four Guilford hits in the frame, scored Josh Shepherd (Mechanicsville, N.C./Hanover), who reached after getting hit by John Ruhlman (1-5) with one out. Andrew Brann followed Denton with an RBI single, after which Denton scored from third on a passed ball. Logan Washle plated Brann with a double to left, which capped the four-run outburst.

Jones entered in the bottom of the seventh and worked around a pair of walks. He got to work with an extra run in the eighth thanks to Rocco Wilcox’s RBI single. Roanoke’s Drew Mikula led off the eighth with a single, but the Quakers’ erased him when Dean Hermanson lined into a double play. Roanoke’s Scott Willis reached on a Guilford error with one out in the ninth, but Jones fanned Sean Guida and then retired Watson on a come-backer to the mound to end the game.

Guilford banged out 12 hits in their third win in four games. The Quakers’ top-four hitters, Shepherd, Wilcox, Mitchell Stumpo and Denton, each had two hits. Denton had three RBI, upping his league-leading total to 41 for the season. Brann also had two hits and was one of three Quakers with an RBI. Denton scattered allowed just two hits and fanned four in his longest stint of the season. Jones had three strikeouts in his three innings.

Mikula, Watson and Hermanson accounted for Roanoke’s three hits. Ruhlman, the second of four Maroons’ hurlers, took the loss after giving up four earned runs in 3.2 innings. Roanoke started Sal Trancucci, who gave up two runs in three innings and was denied in his bid for a league-leading sixth victory.

Coach Nick Black’s ’02 Quakers host league-leading Washington and Lee University Saturday (4/15) in a 12:00 p.m. doubleheader.