College Baseball Final – Guilford 2, Greensboro 1

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Senior Avery Rogers (Salisbury, N.C./East Rowan) threw two perfect innings for his first save of the season in Guilford College’s 2-1 baseball win over Greensboro College at NewBridge Bank Park Monday night.

Rogers entered in the bottom of the eighth inning after the Quakers (6-14) scratched out two unearned runs in the top half of the inning and erased a 1-0 deficit. Guilford shortstop Josh Shepherd made two strong throws from deep in the hole to retired Greensboro’s first two eighth-inning runners. Rogers fanned Jordan Powell to end the eighth. After Guilford went down in order in the ninth, Rogers returned and did likewise, ending the game with two strikeouts.

Greensboro starter Kristopher Peeden threw seven shutout innings of one-hit ball with two walks before yielding to southpaw sidewinder Will McGuire (0-2) in the eighth. Jacob Roberts led off with a single to right and advance to second on a hard-earned walk by Guy Woodliff. Dustin Minnick replaced McGuire and uncorked a passed ball that advanced the runners one base.

Shepherd blooped Guilford’s second hit of the game into right over a drawn-in infield, which scored Roberts with the tying run. Minnick hit Kyle Humphrey to load the bases with no outs, but came back to strike out A.J. Girting. Charles Noble hit a short-hopper to third, which Greensboro’s Gwynn Thompson fielded and threw home for a force out. With two away, Nick Blackwood grounded a ball to the right of second base, which caromed off second baseman Andrew Hernandez’s glove for an error and allowed Shepherd to score the go-ahead run from third. Minnick retired Nathan Fulbright on a groundout to end the inning.

Guilford starter Lou Trosch (Charlotte, N.C./East Mecklenburg) delivered the third-longest outing of his career and his longest since March of 2013. The senior right-hander threw 6.2 innings scattered five hits and did not walk a batter. He fanned five and allowed one earned run in the fourth on Brian Robbett’s RBI double. Joe LeNoir (Raleigh, N.C./Leesville Road (Methodist)) replaced Trosch in the seventh after Thompson singled and Guilford’s Tyler Petersen threw out Kyle Willard trying to score from second base. LeNoir (1-0) walked his first batter, but Andrew Hernandez hit a soft liner to second, which stranded two runners.

Coach Nick Black’s Quakers host Lynchburg College Tuesday (3/24) at 3:00 p.m. in an Old Dominion Athletic Conference game rescheduled from Mar. 22.

Score by Innings                R H E
Guilford      0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 2 3 3
Greensboro    0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 5 2