Box Score GREENEVILLE, Tenn. The University of West Georgia baseball team dropped their first midweek game of the season on Wednesday afternoon after giving up a big seventh inning rally, losing 17-10 to the Tusculum Pioneers at Pioneer Park.
As they did in game one, the Wolves (0-0, 9-3 GSC) took a quick lead in the very first inning, this time off the bat of
Henry Daniels as he launched a home run to right center, giving the Wolves a 2-0 lead after one half inning.
Ezra Brown pitched a clean bottom half to keep that score rolling into the second inning.
The Wolves got right back to work in the second with a lead off double from
Cooper Prince and two batters later he came around to score on a
Charlie Tull single. Tull later came across to score himself, tagging up on a pop out to the second baseman, giving the Wolves a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the second.
The Pioneers (0-0, 8-4 SAC) used a two out double from Samuelson to score their first run of the game, but Prince threw out the second runner at the plate to limit the damage to just one, and preserved the 4-1 lead going to the third.
In the fourth, the Wolves got back on the board with an RBI single from
Joseph Glozier, his first career hit, to extend the lead to 5-1. After
Jake Jordan pitched a scoreless bottom half, the Wolves got right back to work in the fifth.
Anthony Calabro got things started with an RBI single to score Ladner, and one batter later,
Logan Fink, blasted a two run home run to make the score 8-1.
Tusculum finally got back in the scoring column in the bottom of the sixth when they loaded the bases and Samuelson hit a double off the wall to score a pair, making the score 8-3 going into the seventh.
UWG started getting those runs right back in the seventh, as
Cade Hohl started the inning with a double, followed by a hit by pitch from
Henry Daniels, setting the table for Calabro who singled through the left side for an RBI, his second of the day.
Not to be outdone, the first four batters for the Pioneers in the bottom half reached base, including back-to-back singles from Ortega and Flood which scored a pair of runs and forced a pitching change from head coach
Jeff Smith. The first batter new pitcher
Brycen Jones faced singled into right field, scoring two and making the score 9-7. Tusculum wasn't done in the inning as Samuelson drove in his fourth run of the day one batter later, and the Pioneers had climbed right back into the game.
Ryan Whitener then got called upon and after sacrificing two straight bunt singles, the Pioneers had bases loaded with just no outs. The next batter drew a walk, and the Pioneers had their first lead of the day. The Pioneers scored seven more times in the inning for a total of 14 runs on just six hits, and they took a 17-9 lead into the 8th.
UWG got one in the eighth on a Hohl sac fly, and Murgo pitched a clean inning to send us to the final inning. In the ninth, Calabro led the inning off with a single, but the next three batters were sat down in order to end the game with the Pioneers on too 17-10.
Calabro finished the day 4-5 with two RBI's and Ladner was the only other Wolves player with two or more hits.
The Wolves will now regroup and be back in action on Friday at 6 p.m. against the Chargers of Alabama-Huntsville.
