Baseball wraps season at top of AAC

The Milligan baseball team finished the season 14-8 (5-1 Appalachian Athletic Conference), coming up five wins shy of last season's win total despite the shortened schedule. At 5-1 in the league, the Buffs were even with No. 23 Reinhardt University for the top spot, ahead of No. 5 Tennessee Wesleyan and No. 16 Bryan.

Milligan's season featured four games against opponents in the top 11 nationally, with all four games decided by a single run. This stretch helped the Buffs catch fire as they won seven of their last nine and ended the season with three straight wins.

Brandon Marello led Milligan in hitting at a .342 clip, one of five Buffs to bat .300 or better. Ben Grable (.333), Blake Dutton (.325), Will Oliver (.300) and Will Findley (.300) followed. Five Milligan pitchers won two or more games, led by Brock Browning who was 4-1 with an ERA of 2.38. Marello, Garrett Wilkins and Graham Hooker each were 2-0 with Marello sporting a 1.80 ERA, which was sixth lowest in the AAC.

Walk-off wins were a big part of the Buffs' success early in the season. Garrett Goldberg provided the walk-off RBI in one game before scoring the walk-off run in another game on the same day as Milligan won both games of day one during the Clash of Conferences tournament. Shortly thereafter, Richard Polinsky helped the Buffs defeat No. 9 Indiana Tech with a walk-off single in another home game.