CENTRAL, S.C. - Despite totaling 11 hits for the game, Anderson University baseball left 13 runners on base and committed six errors, as the Trojans fell to Southern Wesleyan, 8-3, in a Palmetto State clash Wednesday evening at Connor Field.
With the setback, the Trojans suffer their second straight loss and drop to 17-22 on the season, while the Warriors earn their first win over AU in two tries this season and improve to 11-27 overall.
Within the Black and Gold's 11 hits for the day, lead-off hitter and second baseman, Kyle Bailey, paced the club with three hits, including his eighth double of the season. Bailey also scored a run, while driving in Nick Bernardo on a single in the top of the sixth inning. Bernardo also posted a multi-hit game with a 2-for-4 performance highlighted by his team-high sixth triple. The three-bagger also came in the sixth and scored Trojan catcher Travis Smith.
The middle of the Anderson lineup of junior first baseman Steven Cooper and junior designated hitter LJ Newman tallied a pair of singles apiece, as Cooper has tallied a hit in 16 of his last 17 games. On the other end, Newman is on a seven-game hitting streak, bouncing back after finishing a three-game series with Tusculum hitless to close the month of March.
SWU's leftfielder, Justin Brew, tallied four RBI on the evening to lead the Warriors, as he was one of three Southern Wesleyan hitters with multi-hit games. Fellow outfielder, Johnny Ponder, finished 3-for-4 with a pair of RBI, while lead-off hitter, Michael Hyman, finished the game with two hits and scored three times.
The home side found the scoreboard early with four runs through the first two innings. In a three-run second inning, the Warriors took advantage of three Trojan miscues and a three-run double by Brew, as they totaled a lead they would not relinquish.
The Trojans tried to claw their way back in the third when a Cooper single brought home Bailey for the visitors' first run of the contest. Despite the early run, AU could not find the scoreboard again until the two-run six, as it dropped its first decision to SWU since the 2013 season.
Anderson shifts its focus back to South Atlantic Conference play this weekend when it heads to Lenoir-Rhyne for a key conference series. The three-game set opens on Friday at 6 p.m., followed by a doubleheader on Saturday beginning at 1 p.m.
