GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - The Tusculum baseball team received a pair of solid pitching performances from Craig Goodman and Jason Gardner as the Pioneers swept a South Atlantic Conference doubleheader against visiting Anderson Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Park. The Pioneers (18-5, 7-4 SAC) won the opener 5-3 and followed with a 4-1 victory in the nightcap.

Tusculum has won its last three games and nine of its last 10 outings, while Anderson slips to 11-14 overall and 5-6 in the league.

Game 1: Tusculum 5, Anderson 3

Tusculum junior Alexi Colon went 3-for-4, while Goodman tossed six strong innings in the Pioneers 5-3 win in the opener. Goodman (3-1) scattered nine hits, while allowing three runs, two earned, walked two and struck out two.

Tusculum jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a pair of runs in the second inning. Nate Reid led off the frame with a single and moved to second on Aaron Guinn's one-out base hit. After the two moved up a base on a wild pitch by AU starter TJ Estes (2-2), Reid scored on Trey Drewery's sacrifice fly, while also moving Guinn to third. Guinn would cross the plate with the second run thanks to a fielding error.

Anderson knotted the game at 2-2 with a run each in the third and fourth innings. In the third, Blake May reached on a one-out single, moved to second on a TC error and scored the first Trojan run of the game on Erick Sanderson's two-out base hit up the middle. In the fourth, Anderson tied the game as the Trojans put together three consecutive hits, including double by Zach Reeves to make the score 2-2.

Tusculum regained the lead at 3-2 in the fifth as Branfy Arias tripled off the center field wall and scored the go-ahead run as Colon legged out an infield hit. Anderson tied the game again at 3-3 as Reeves drew a lead-off walk in the sixth and later scored on Ryan Saxon's two-double down the left field line.

Senior catcher Sean Cotten put the Pioneers up for good with his lead-off homer in the sixth inning, a blast over the left center field wall. It was Cotten's sixth home run of the season and 33rd of his career, just one shy of matching the school record 34 hit by former teammate and 2010 SAC Player of the Year Jared Richmond (2009-2010).

Tusculum added an insurance run in the eighth inning off of reliever Justin Rogers as senior Rolondo Bonner was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and later scored on a fielding error on Guinn's fly ball down the right field line.

Rookie John-Austin Shepard, who relieved Goodman in the seventh, pitched three shutout innings to record his third save of the season. Shepard allowed three hits and posted four strikeouts as he retired seven of the last eight batters he would face.

Anderson out-hit the Pioneers by a 12-8 margin, but the Trojans left 14 runners on base. Reid finished with two hits for Tusculum, while Sanderson and Tony Price led the Trojans with two hits each as all nine Anderson starters recorded a hit.

Game 2; Tusculum 4, Anderson 1

Gardner tossed the first complete game of his Tusculum career as the Pioneers won the second game, 4-1.

All the scoring in the contest came in the fourth inning. In the top of the frame, Anderson broke up the scoreless tie as Thomas Padro led off with a walk, moved to second on May's single and later scored on Sanderson's two-out RBI single.

But in the bottom of the inning, Tusculum sent nine batters to the plate with Colon hitting a double off the wall in the left field corner to score Payden Houser and Arias. Reid drove home the next two with his two-run flare that landed inside the right field line, scoring Colon from the third and Cotten all the way from first.

Gardner shut down Anderson from there as he held the Trojans hitless for the final three innings and didn't allow a base runner to reach second as he records his first win of the season (1-0). Gardner allowed four hits, one run, two walks and five strikeouts.

Tusculum finished with eight hits, including multi-hit outings by Colon, Cotten and Reid. Cotten posted his 11th double of the year, while Colon recorded his 10th.

Sanderson (3-3) suffered the loss as he went four innings, allowed five hits, four runs, walked four and struck out two. Anderson reliever Elliott Tolley posted a solid outing as he limited Tusculum to three hits and tallied three strikeouts in his two innings of work.

The two teams will close out the weekend series on Sunday with a 1 p.m. contest.