DANVILLE, Ky. – Two hard-fought, extra-inning wins provided a fitting finish to the regular season for Oglethorpe baseball Saturday afternoon. The Stormy Petrels won both, 5-2 in 10 innings and 8-5 in eight innings, to complete the sweep of Centre and win their fifth Southern Athletic Association series of the season.
The pitching staff shined in game one while the offense came to life late in both games.
Oglethorpe 5 | Centre 2 (10 innings)
Oglethorpe trailed 2-1 through seven before Carter Guarino struck with a game-tying single, scoring Andrew Noack. Noack had reached on a hit then moved to third on a sacrifice from Harrison Hall and groundout from Will Arnold.
Guarino was later part of Oglethorpe's three-run 10th inning as he had an infield single to score Andrew Hutcherson and break the final tie. Sam Mills and Carson Weir would also drive in runs in the late surge that saw the Petrels take game one.
Harry Paul made the start and pitched the first five innings, allowing only five hits and two runs. Grant Guinther (3.0 IP), Jake Hill (1.0 IP) and Will Marconi (1.0 IP) combined for the next five innings and did not give up a run.
Oglethorpe 8 | Centre 5 (8 innings)
Neither team scored more than one run in any inning until the eighth, although they combined for eight scoring frames over the first six innings which made for a lot of back-and-forth. In fact, Oglethorpe and Centre once again headed into extra innings all knotted at 4-4 before the Petrels stormed ahead with four runs in the eighth.
Noack broke the tie with a double to left field, and Mills had one of the biggest hits with a two-RBI single to center to make it 8-4.
Game Notes
- Oglethorpe moved to 19-19 on the year and finished the regular season with three straight wins
- They won 11 of their last 17 games
- Oglethorpe won the series this season against five SAA opponents, including sweeps over Sewanee and Centre
- Arnold and Guarino both posted multiple hits in game one; Mills and Parker Hildebrecht both posted three-hit games in game two
- This was Arnold's team-leading 17th multihit game and Mills' team-leading fifth three-hit game
- Guarino is up to an eight-game hitting streak and 19-game streak of reaching base
- Arnold has reached base in 17 straight games
- Arnold was hit by pitch in the eighth inning of game two to increase his Oglethorpe record in that category to 39 career times being plunked
- Mason Pearcy had one of the big swings of game one with his third home run of the season
Up Next
Oglethorpe heads to the SAA tournament as the No. 4 seed. The first stage will feature two pods and is scheduled for Thursday-Saturday, April 28-30. The winners of the two pods will face off in a three-game series Friday-Sunday, May 6-8, to determine the SAA tournament champion. More information on the tournament will be announced by the SAA next week.
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