The Oglethorpe baseball team earned a doubleheader split with No. 8 Birmingham-Southern Saturday at Anderson Field, defeating the Panthers 5-1 in Game 2 in an excellently-pitched game by senior Kyle Mitchell after falling 5-0 in Game 1. The victory is the program's first over the perennial Southern Athletic Association power since April 16, 2011, and it moved the Stormy Petrels to 5-1 overall and 1-1 in SAA play.

Mitchell pitched very well in Game 2, earning a complete-game victory to improve to 2-0 on the season. He went the full seven innings, allowing five hits and a run while striking out four and walking two. After allowing a run on a double, foul out, and sacrifice fly in the second, Mitchell beared down and did not allow anything else. He worked his way out of jams in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, the biggest coming with runners at first and second an nobody out in the sixth. He induced two lineouts and a flyout to escape the inning without any harm done. 

Meanwhile, the Oglethorpe offense picked up three runs in the bottom half of the second. Sophomore designated hitter Adrian Celata led off the inning with a single and senior second baseman Keith Dearden followed with a double down the line that scored Celata to tie the game. After freshman first baseman Andrew Mink reached on a fielder's choice, junior right fielder Brandon Fish laced a triple to the left-center gap, scoring Mink. Sophomore catcher Bobby Rezac followed with an RBI groundout to score Fish and the Petrels had a 3-1 lead. 

That held until the fifth, when Oglethorpe put runners and first and second with nobody out. The Petrels still had runners at second and third with two outs a couple batters later when junior third baseman Austin Ferlita reached on an error that allowed two runs to score and put the game out of reach for Birmingham-Southern. 

Fish was one of four Petrels to collect a hit against Birmingham-Southern starter Stephen Himic, and he went 1-for-3 with a triple, an RBI, and a run scored. 

Things went pretty much the opposite way for the Petrels in Game 1, as they collected nine hits in the contest but committed four errors, left seven men on base, made a couple of outs on the basepaths, and eventually fell to the No. 8 Panthers 5-0. Sophomore right-hander Matt Davis suffered the loss to drop to 1-1 on the year, going 7 1/3 innings while allowing three earned runs on nine hits. He struck out four and walked just one. 

Sophomore outfielder Jarvis Miller led the Petrels at the plate on the game, going 2-for-4 with a double.

"We gave ourselves a chance to win the series on Sunday and that is always our goal," said Oglethorpe head coach Dan Giordano. "We didn't capitalize on our chances in Game 1, but we did in Game 2. I think we can defend better than we showed in the first game, as well. Pitching was strong all day for us, as it has been all year. We have a great opportunity in front of us tomorrow to win a series against a top 10 opponent."

The Petrels will take on the Panthers at 1 p.m. Sunday from Anderson Field. After that, they'll host a game against LaGrange Tuesday at 7 p.m. before getting set to host Millsaps in their next SAA series Saturday and Sunday, March 5 and 6.