No. 5 Baseball Blasts Blue Mountain Christian and Georgetown

ATHENS, Tenn.- The baseball team scored a plethora of runs on Friday, outscoring their two opponents 33-5 in two run-rule wins. The fifth-ranked Bulldogs opened their day with the Blue Mountain Christian University Toppers and finished against the Georgetown College Tigers. 

vs. Blue Mountain Christian

Tennessee Wesleyan started the scoring in the first inning. After getting on first with an error, Ethan Wright quickly made his way to third off a wild pitch. A sacrifice fly by Allan Gil Fernandez allowed Wright to put the first run on the board. Kolton Reynolds, who got on base with a single, scored from first on Josh Shelly's double. The third run of the inning came in the form of Bryant O'Neill, scoring on David Ballenilla's double. Ballenilla gave the team a 4-0 lead at the end of the inning when he scored on Rob Gordon's single. 

In the second, two more runs came across for the Bulldogs. Those runs came in the form of Wright and Fernandez when they scored on a Shelly double. The top of the third and fourth innings saw the Toppers score two runs to cut the lead down to four. TWU scored another four runs in the bottom of the fourth to build their lead back up.

As Reynolds and Shelly were occupying second and third, Ballenilla hit a triple that would bring in both of the baserunners. A bunt single and stolen base got Gordon to second, and a double by Jonathan Bosque gave Ballenilla and Gordon both time to score, moving the lead to 10-2. The opponents cut the lead to five runs by scoring three runs in the top of the fifth. TWU got one of the runs back in the bottom of the fifth as Fernandez, who was on third after a single, stolen base, and balk, scored on Shelly's single. The Bulldogs built on to their lead and ended the game in the eighth inning.

The third inning of the game that saw Tennessee Wesleyan score four runs started with Ballenilla reaching first on an error and advancing to second and succeeded with a single by Gordon that saw Ballenilla move to third and Gordon move to second on the throw. Bosque brought in Ballenilla with a single, while a sacrifice fly by Thomas Teel gave Gordon the space to score from third. Wright got on base with a single and made his way to second on a throw attempt to get Bosque out at third. Bosque and Wright became the game-ending runs when they scored on Fernandez's single. 

Shelly led the offense with four RBIs while Fernandez, Ballenilla, and Bosque each had three RBIs, and Teel and Gordon had an RBI each.

Cameron Goffar had four strikeouts in the pitching win, while Bradley Johnson had three strikeouts in relief. 

vs. Georgetown

Similiar to the first game of the day, the Bulldogs went ahead in the first inning. This time thoug,h they only went ahead by two runs, starting with a ground out by Reynolds scoring Fernandez. The bases became loaded for TWU and a wild pitch pushed Shelly to home plate to give the team their 2-0 advantage.

The Bulldogs pounded the runs in the third inning, scoring seven runs. Back-to-back doubles, the first by Reynolds, and the second by Shelly which scored Reynolds, moved the score to 3-0. A throwing error on a stolen base by Wright allowed Shelly to score while another throwing error on a second base by Wright allowed him to score. Three consecutive walks saw Gordon, Bosque, and Reece Jordan load the bases. Fernandez emptied two of the bases with his double, scoring both Gordon and Bosque. An error on the hit allowed Jordan to be the sixth run of the inning. Fernandez became the seventh run of the inning, giving the team a 9-0 lead when he scored on a Reynolds single.

Three of the first four batters to open the bottom of the fourth inning got on base to load the bases for the Bulldogs. A walk by Bosque kept the bases loaded and scored Cody McGill. Jordan followed with a double that brought in Ballenilla and Gordon while a ground out on the next at-bat by Fernandez gave Bosque the space to score. Reynolds' double brought Jordan in, moving the team's lead to 14-0 and putting the game in run-rule territory.

Over the next two innings, the Bulldogs added four more runs to their score. Three of the runs came in the fifth inning, starting with a bases-loaded walk by Cade Philpot, which brought in McGill. A single by Jordan kept the bases loaded but scored Ballenilla. The inning ended with the team leading 17-0 after Brayan Espinoza hit a single that brought in Gordon. The final run fo the game came in the sixth inning as Philpot earned another walk with the bases loaded, scoring Wright to give the team the 18-0 score they won with in the run-rule game. 

Jordan, Fernandez, and Reynolds all finished with three RBIs in the win to go along with two RBIs by Philpot and an RBI each by Espinoza, Shelly, and Bosque.

McGuire Taylor struck out six batters in the pitching win.

The victory moves the Bulldogs record to 6-0 overall. The team will be back in action on Saturday against Blue Mountain Christian University at 3:00 p.m.