Baseball Drops Narrow Contest to Roanoke
Quakers strand 11 runners on base in tough conference defeat
from by: Bryce Johnson, Director of Athletic Communications at Guilford College
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Guilford College baseball team (15-9, 3-8 ODAC) was outlasted by Roanoke College (14-11-1, 6-3-1 ODAC), 6-4, in a sloppy yet closely contested affair at McBane Field on Wednesday afternoon.
It was Tanner Royals (High Point, N.C.) day for the Quakers and the right-hander navigated a ton of traffic on the bases across 5.0 innings, allowing ten hits, but he did not walk a man against two strikeouts. Ultimately, he was plagued by the third inning in which he allowed the four runs he was charged with, all of them earned and ended up on the hook for the loss to drop to 2-1.
Finn Lamb also lasted five innings as the starter for the guests allowing five hits and three walks with one strikeout. All that led to three runs, two of them earned, but he did enough to grab the win and improve to 1-0. Trevor Orth entered and hit a batter to fill the pillows in the eighth, but escaped that jam, and then finished his first save with a scoreless ninth.
Held without an extra-base hit for just the second time at home this season, GC accumulated ten hits as a team, but only two players had multiple. One of them was Rylan Smith (Archdale, N.C.) who went 2-of-4 with a walk and a run scored. Carter Blum (McLeansville, N.C.) also had two hits and a walk over four plate appearances. Ryne Rodrigues (Summerfield, N.C.) drove in a run and Skyler Dark (Pleasant Garden, N.C.) scored twice for GC.
Tyler Galloway had himself a day, going 3-for-5 with a pair of doubles, driving in three runs and stealing a base. Kyle Moshier also had three hits in five at bats with a steal, scoring once. Nate Prince went 1-of-3 with a sacrifice fly, a steal, one run scored, and another driven in.
Each team got traffic in the first two innings, but nothing materialized in the run column until the top of the third when the Maroons got on the board. Prince opened the inning, turning over the lineup with a single back through the box. He promptly stole second and scored on a Danny Ferguson single. Moshier and Liam Murphy singled on either side of pop out on a sacrifice bunt attempt by Parker Stallard that featured a fine, sliding play by Royals off the mound. In any case, Galloway split the right-center field gap with a double, clearing the bases, and while GC cut him down at third with a perfectly executed relay, the guest had claimed a 4-0 lead.
Guilford would divide the deficit in half in the bottom of the frame as Grayson Tudor (Reidsville, N.C.) reached for the second time in as many plate appearances, this time with a single into center, splitting the first two outs of the inning. The biggest play of the rally saw Dark nub one off the end of the bat, but locate it like a perfectly placed bunt, beating the throw to first. Smith came through rocketing a line drive single to center, scoring Tudor and allowing Dark to go first-to-third then Rodrigues picked him up, smoking a grounder that exploded on the shortstop for a hit, bringing in a second run.
In the top of the fifth, GC would turn away another Roanoke run on the bases, as once again, Galloway split the power alley in right-center for a double, but with another pristine relay, this time to the plate, they prevented Murphy from scoring and they would capitalize on the momentum in the home half with a little help from the Maroons. Aaron Williams (Mocksville, N.C.) got drilled by a pitch with one out, advanced to second on a passed ball, took third on a Dark groundout, then after Smith walked, he coasted home on a wild pitch.
Roanoke added two in the sixth as Hayden Giordano, Corey Coogan, and Ken McKeever hit three consecutive singles to begin the frame and produce a run, then Prince brought in another on a liner to center, although a diving grab by Aidan McCandliss (Burlington, N.C.) kept it to a sacrifice fly and Jackson Marcellus (Chapel Hill, N.C.) avoided further damage with the score 6-3.
Loading the bases with one out via two walks and a single, the Maroons had a chance to blow the game open, but Stratton Barwick (Siler City, N.C.) would instead bear down and escape unscathed and the Quaker bats would respond in turn, cutting into the deficit again on the other side of the seventh inning stretch. Williams got a one-out single but was supplanted by Dark via a fielder’s choice. Smith would line one to right-center for a single, but in the sudden rain shower that swathed across McBane Field, the ball scooted under the glove of Stallard, and all the way to the wall, gifting GC a run as Dark came all the way around to score.
Unfortunately, the Quakers just could not quite get over the hump though, leaving 11 men on base, including eight in scoring position, with the biggest missed opportunity coming in the eighth when they loaded the bases on two singles against Isaac Brooks, then a hit batsman by Orth, but he got out of the jam then finished the 6-4 Maroon win.
Heading north, Guilford visits nationally receiving votes Shenandoah University for a big conference doubleheader next. First pitch of game one in Winchester, Va. is set for noon, weather permitting.
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