No. 6 Baseball Unable to Take Back Lead Against #2 GGC at World Series

LEWISTON, Idaho- The baseball team was back in action at the 67th Avista NAIA World Series on Monday. The sixth seed in the field faced the No. 2 seed in the tournament, the Georgia Gwinnett College Grizzlies, on the Memorial Day holiday in a game which got off to a later start than planned and was played into early Tuesday morning on the home coast of the Bulldogs. 

After Sam Rochard and the defense recorded the first three outs of the game in the top of the first, the offense did some work in the bottom of the first. The first four batters for the Bulldogs got on base, with a few of them turning the lead in the favor of TWU.

Braxton Turner (single), Jack Stevens (hit by pitch), and Marco Martinez (single) each get on base to open the bottom of the first. Evan Magill hit a single through the hole on the right side, giving Turner and Stevens the space to score to make the score 2-0. A throwing error on the play allowed Martinez to make it to third and Magill to advance to second. After it looked like the inning might possibly end after two consecutive outs, Daniel Stewart kept the offense alive with a single, scoring both Martinez and Magill to give the team a 4-2 lead after the end of the first inning.

Pitching took over in the second and third inning as the teams combined to record one hit through the two innings.

Georgia Gwinnett cut into the lead in the fourth inning though, scoring two runs to make the score 4-2 and changing the momentum in the process. In the sixth inning, the opponents added one more run to cut the Bulldogs' lead down to one run. The top of the seventh saw the Grizzlies take a 6-4 lead. 

Tennessee Wesleyan trailed by one run at the end of the seventh. After reaching base via a fielder's choice, moving to second on a Martinez single, and third on a Magill fielder's choice, Stevens scored on Cayle Webser's sacrifice fly to make the score 6-5. The team did not score again though until the ninth inning, where they entered trailing 12-5. Webster hit a single that Stevens, who hit a double to get on base, scored on to make the final score 12-6 in favor of the opponents.

Magill, Stewart, and Webster each had two RBIs in the game. Rochard had a career-high nine strikeouts on the mound for the Bulldogs.

TWU (41-17) will play an elimination game on Tuesday. The team will face the No. 1 seed in the World Series, Southeastern University, for a chance to stay alive in the tournament. The game is set to begin at 6:05 p.m., ET/3:05 p.m., CT.