The Oglethorpe baseball team fell to No. 8 Birmingham-Southern Sunday afternoon at Anderson Field, 14-5, allowing the visiting Panthers to take two out of three from the series to open up the Southern Athletic Association season. The loss dropped the Stormy Petrels to 5-2 on the season overall and 1-2 in SAA play.

The Petrels fell behind 6-0 early, but mounted a comeback which included a 3-run fourth inning, cutting the Birmingham-Southern lead to 6-4. The Panthers pushed it back out with four runs over the next two inning, however, and eventually pulled out to the 14-5 victory.

Up 6-4 going into the fifth, the Panthers answered the Oglethorpe rally with three runs in that inning and a single run in the sixth, taking a 10-4 advantage. The Petrels were able to get a run back in the eighth, but Birmingham-Southern put the game away in the ninth with four more runs, pushing out to the 14-5 lead, which would eventually prove to be the margin of victory. 

The Panthers tallied six runs over the opening two innings of play off of Oglethorpe senior right-hander Spencer Transue, scoring a single run in the first and five more in the second. The Petrels mounted a rally, however. Freshman first baseman Andrew Mink ripped a leadoff double into the right-center gap in the second and, two batters later, junior right fielder Brandon Fish bounced a single through the left side of the infield to score Mink and cut the Panther lead to 6-1. 

The Petrels really came through with a rally in the fourth, though. Mink led off the inning with a solo home run to left field. Then with one out, Fish and sophomore catcher Bobby Rezac walked and sophomore center fielder Britton Araujo singled to load the bases. Junior shortstop Gabriel Selochan was then hit by a pitch, driving in a run to make the score 6-3. After a pitching change by the Panthers, sophomore left fielder Jarvis Miller skied a sacrifice fly into foul territory down the right field line, scoring another run and putting two runners in scoring position with two men out and the score 6-4. Junior third baseman Austin Ferlita followed with a walk to reload the bases, but sophomore designated hitter Adrian Celata flied out to deep right to end the threat with the Petrels still behind 6-4.

Transue suffered the loss to drop to 1-1 on the season. He threw an inning-and-a-third, allowing six runs on four hits while walking three.

Mink had the bast offensive day for the Petrels, going 3 for 4 with a home run, a double, an RBI and two runs scored. Araujo also went 3 for 4 and scored a run. 

"This was definitely a frustrating day for us," said Oglethorpe head coach Dan Giordano. "It's not how we wanted to end this series. We battled back from the early hole, but we just struggled on the mound today. We know what kind of team we have, though, and we will bounce back this week."

The Petrels will take on LaGrange in a non-conference battle Tuesday at 7 p.m. on Anderson Field before re-entering SAA play with a 3-game series against Millsaps Saturday and Sunday at home. Saturday's doubleheader will get started at 2 p.m. and Sunday's single game will begin at noon.