College Baseball Final – Virginia Wesleyan 4, Guilford 1

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Chance Pauley threw 6.2 shutout innings to help second-seeded Virginia Wesleyan University defeat Guilford College, 4-1, Friday in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Tournament.

The win clinched the best-of-three series after the Marlins (27-12) posted a 9-1 win over the Quakers (20-20-1) earlier in the day.

Jacob Pilarski, who threw a complete-game eight-hitter in Friday’s opener, plated Corey King with an RBI double in the first inning off of Guilford starter Trevor Denton (3-7). The run stood alone on the scoreboard as Pauley (4-1) and Denton dueled into the seventh inning. Virginia Wesleyan doubled its margin when Brady Fallon scored an unearned run in the seventh off a wild pitch.

Zack Clark’s two-run, eighth-inning single scored two insurance tallies in the eighth inning off of relief pitcher Mitchell Stumpo.

The Quakers, who batted second in the game, loaded the bases with one out in the ninth off reliever Glen Pizzanello. He got the second out on a Michael Pinkston sacrifice fly before recording a strikeout to end the game.

In his 155th and final career contest as Guilford’s starting shortstop, Josh Shepherd had a game-high four hits and helped the Quakers outhit the Marlins, 9-7.

Pauley scattered six hits and walked one in his 6.2 frames of work. He also struck out three. Andrew Lowe got the seventh inning’s final out before Pizzanello closed the contest with two innings of three-hit ball.

Virginia Wesleyan advances to the four-team double-elimination round of the tournament May 11-13 in Lynchburg, Virginia.