ATLANTA – Oglethorpe celebrated 10 baseball seniors Friday afternoon at Hermance Stadium, but the Stormy Petrels came up short twice to No. 4 Birmingham Southern with scores of 17-6 and 15-2. The Panthers indeed played like the No. 4-ranked team in NCAA Division III and won the Southern Athletic Association series with the doubleheader sweep.

Andrew Noack, Harrison Hall, Noah Cole, Connor Ledet, Harry Paul, Noah Schroyer, Shota Barbeau, Will Arnold, Rajan Sampat and Heshie Getson all were honored.

Oglethorpe will have a chance to salvage the series in the finale, set for Saturday at 2 p.m. pending weather.

Oglethorpe posted a big inning in game one behind a Mason Pearcy one-out, bases-loaded triple to center field in the fifth inning. It cleared the bases and trimmed Birmingham Southern's lead to 7-5. One batter later, Noack sacrifice flied Pearcy home to make it a one-run game, but the Panthers would answer emphatically with 10 runs in the next frame to put the game well out of reach.

Similarly, the Panthers posted a big inning early in game two to take a big early lead and never look back. Oglethorpe managed to score two runs in the third on singles by Jonathan Cruz and Ledet, but that would be all the scoring for the Petrels in the nightcap.

After Oglethorpe and Birmingham Southern finish the series, the Petrels will hit the road for their last four games, first facing Piedmont on Tuesday before heading to Centre to close out the SAA season next weekend.