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.