Baseball suffers narrow defeat to No. 1 TWU
One night after defeating the No. 9-ranked team in the country, the Milligan College baseball team had a chance to beat the top-ranked team in the country but in the end fell via walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. Milligan lost to No. 1 Tennessee Wesleyan University 10-9, snapping a six-game winning streak.
Game 1
Game 1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Milligan
|
0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 10 | 1 |
|
No. 1 Tennessee Wesleyan
|
1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 11 | 2 |
KINGSPORT, Tenn. (Feb. 16, 2020) – One night after defeating the No. 9-ranked team in the country, the Milligan College baseball team had a chance to beat the top-ranked team in the country but in the end fell via walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth. Milligan lost to No. 1 Tennessee Wesleyan University 10-9, snapping a six-game winning streak.
Milligan led 9-5 with two out and no one on in the bottom of the ninth inning before Tennessee Wesleyan stormed back with three straight hits and a walk before Wesleyan's Anthony Williams hit a three-run home run to right field, narrowly over the leaping grab of Milligan right fielder Chance Hall. Cameron Bryson, who was in line for the save after a clean seventh and eighth followed by getting the first two out in the ninth on two pitches, suffered the loss.
Brandon Marello (3-for-5) and Hall (2-for-4) finished the game with multiple hits, and both provided timely hits in Milligan's effort to go out front in the middle innings. Hall had an RBI single through the left side in the sixth to score two and make it 8-5 before Marello led the eighth inning off with a triple, then scored on a Blake Dutton sacrifice fly to make it 9-5.
Dutton had another big hit in the sixth as he cut Tennessee Wesleyan's lead to 5-4 with an RBI single to shallow center. Richard Polinsky followed later in the inning with the tying RBI on a sacrifice fly, then Marello scored the initial go-ahead run after a wild pitch.
Right-handed sophomore Jack Bembry made the start on the hill and went the first five innings. He surrendered only five hits and four earned runs (five total) with two walks and two strikeouts. He was in line for the win until Wesleyan's ninth-inning rally.
Up next, Milligan continues its stretch against some of the top teams in the country with a trip to No. 11 University of the Cumberlands on Monday. Teams are scheduled to play a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m.