Elon Baseball Falls After Late UNCG Push

ELON, N.C. – UNCG scored a pair of ninth-inning runs to cap the scoring in a back-and-forth contest as the Elon University baseball team fell in a 7-5 decision to the Spartans at Latham Park on Wednesday afternoon.

Box Score | Play-by-Play

Elon (5-8) got two of its five hits from Ryne Ogren, while Matt Oldham drove in a pair of runs.

The loss was charged to Jared Wetherbee (1-1) who allowed two runs on two hits in an inning.

For UNCG (8-4), Dillon Stewart was 2-for-3 with a run scored and two RBI, while Cesar Trejo went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI.

Jack Maynard (3-1) earned the win after striking out eight in 3.1 scoreless relief innings. Andrew Wants walked two, but struck out three in the ninth to garner his fourth save.

How It Happened: With the score knotted at five after eight innings, UNCG put together some offense. Austin Embler drew a leadoff walk before a one-out single and another walk loaded the bases. Elon moved to within an out of getting out of the inning when Wetherbee struck out Trejo, the Spartans’ top hitter, but Tripp Shelton followed by bouncing a ball over the bag at second that was snared by a diving Joe Satterfield. Unfortunately, Satterfield was unable to make a play and the single scored two runs to give UNCG the 7-5 lead.

The Phoenix got the tying run on base in the bottom half thanks to one-out walks to Mike Borucki and Satterfield before back-to-back strikeouts ended the scoring chance.

Elon was the first to score, as a two-out dropped popup in the second inning allowed a pair of runs to cross the plate.

UNCG tied it in the fourth as four consecutive singles led to a pair of runs. The Phoenix immediately answered, going back up by a 4-2 score in the bottom half of the inning. With two runners in scoring position and two outs, Oldham lined a single to right to drive home a pair.

The Spartans grabbed their first lead in the fifth, scoring three runs to make it 5-4. UNCG had runners on the corners and one out when a passed ball on a strikeout allowed the first run to score. Stewart followed with an RBI double to left-center to tie it up and then raced home with the go-ahead marker on a Trejo single through the right side.

James Venuto quickly got things back to even as he sent the first pitch of the bottom of the fifth off of the batter’s eye in centerfield for his second home run of the season.

Notes: Ogren has reached safely in all 13 games this season and has a 10-game hitting streak… Of Elon’s 13 games, 12 have been decided by one or two runs.

On Deck: Elon will be back in action at Latham Park this weekend as the Phoenix will host Appalachian State in three-game series. Game one is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon.