Baseball Suffers First Home Loss of Season to Averett
Phillips sharp, but Quakers bullpen cannot hang on in ODAC clash
from Bryce Johnson, Director of Athletic Communications at The Guilford College
GREENSBORO, N.C. – More great starting pitching was handed in, this time by Jacob Phillips (Browns Summit, N.C.), but the arm barn of the Guilford College baseball team (12-4, 2-3 ODAC) could not complete the effort on Wednesday night at McBane Field as Averett University (13-3, 5-0 ODAC) came back to win, 8-7, in midweek Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) action.
Handing in the fifth start of 5.0 innings or more over the last six games by the Quakers’ rotation, Phillips recorded the team’s second quality start of the year going 6.0 innings allowing two runs, only one earned, on just four hits and a walk while striking out three. He left in line for the win, and he would have had it through the 25th outs. Instead, Hayden Sekanick (Tampa, Fla.) gave the cardinal and grey a pair of clutch outs, but then hit two men who ended up coming around to score, suffering the loss to fall to 0-1.
Cougars’ starter Corbin Mickle ended up charged with four runs, three earned, on seven hits and a walk, fanning one but did not factor into the decision. It would be the fifth of six arms deployed by AU, Jake Braun, got the victory throwing 2.0 innings allowing one run on one hit and two walks to improve to 2-0. Cade Sabin walked a man in a scoreless ninth to lock down his second save.
Aaron Williams (Mocksville, N.C.) had a nice afternoon at the plate going 2-of-6 with a double, scoring twice, and driving in two. Continuing his strong stretch at the plate, Grayson Tudor (Reidsville, N.C.) went 2-for-4 with a walk and two RBI. Skyler Dark (Pleasant Garden, N.C.) also reached on three occasions, walking on top of a 2-of-5 afternoon at the dish featuring a double, an RBI, and a run scored. Christian Chinen (Honolulu, Hawaii) had a pair of hits, scoring once while Cole Price (Summerfield, N.C.) entered later in the game and had two plate appearances for GC, reaching in both with a walk and a hit, stealing a bag, and driving in a run.
The top of the Averett lineup did most of the damage in this one as number-two hitter Trevor Testerman led the charge going 3-of-4 with a HBP, a double, two steals, three runs scored, and two RBI. Nolan Maccabe followed going 1-of-3 getting drilled and walked once and adding a steal while scoring once and driving in another. Cleanup hitter Preston Robbins went 2-of-5 with a double, an RBI, and a run scored as well.
Averett manufactured a run in the top of the first with Testerman beating an infield hit to short, swiping second, and crossing the plate on a single to right-center by Maccabe. They then virtually duplicated the run-scoring sequence in the third inning, just with an error in place of the Maccabe hit, but Phillips would shut things down for the remainder of his outing and the bats for Guilford found their footing in the bottom half.
Held to just a single baserunner via an error over the initial eight men to bat, Chinen sparked the rally with the first Quakers hit, a line drive single to center, with one out in the third before Dark hooked one inside the rightfield line for a double, giving GC a pair of runners in scoring position. Williams brought in both driving one to the power-alley in right-center that squibbed out of the glove of the right fielder Kevin Zischke, plating both runs and leveling the score. Rylan Smith (Archdale, N.C.) followed with a strikeout swinging, but again, the ball popped free from the glove, this time the catcher, J.C. Barry for a passed ball, his throw then sailed over the first baseman, Drew Skinner, and Williams came home as GC grabbed the lead, 3-2.
Adding insurance with a Tudor RBI-single two batters after a Smith double in the fifth and then two more by way of a Tudor RBI-hit and a Price single in the sixth, Guilford was comfortable with a 6-2 edge as they turned the ball over to the bullpen after Phillips’ great outing, but it was then that the tide turned. Jackson Marcellus (Chapel Hill, N.C.) got the first two men in the seventh, but a Mason Williams walk, Zischke chopper over first that wound up being a double, and a Testerman two-bagger to left-center generated two runs although Stratton Barwick (Siler City, N.C.) avoided further trouble.
Dark tacked on another run for the Quakers with a run-scoring knock in the home half of the seventh, but the Cougars chipped away with another pair in the eighth. Robbins singled then Barry doubled and Tyler Lowe chased in a run with a groundout before a pinch hitter, Tyler Wilson, made it a one-run game with a single. Again, GC went to the bullpen and Sekanick avoided further damage that frame but after fanning Zischke, he had pitches run inside and graze the jerseys of Testerman and Maccabe putting the go-ahead run on base. Guilford turned to Chase Wade (Archdale, N.C.) to try and get them out of it, but Robbins skied a flyball to right-center that landed just out of the reach of the dive by both Dark and Chinen to even the score and Skinner gave them the lead with a groundout to short with the infield back putting the guests in front. Dark walked to put the tying run on and the go-ahead run at the plate, but Williams chopped one off the front of the plate and was thrown out at first to end the ballgame in an 8-7 score.
Guilford faces their toughest test of the season to this point this weekend, heading to the University of Lynchburg to battle the No. 3 nationally ranked Hornets in a twin bill on Saturday starting at noon.
#GoQuakes