ATLANTA—Colin Stewart pitched masterfully to help even the series, then Dylan Quintilio turned in the best start of the season as the Oglethorpe baseball team took two out of three from No. 4 Birmingham Southern Saturday in a three-game Southern Athletic Association series. After BSC won game one of the series 6-2 Friday afternoon, Oglethorpe came back to take the series by sweeping Saturday's doubleheader with scores of 13-7 and 6-5.
The Stormy Petrels survived a late scare in the nightcap which proved to be the rubber game of the series.
Oglethorpe 6, Birmingham Southern 5 | Series Game 3
Quintilio's effort saw the Petrels enter the seventh and final inning ahead 6-1 looking to take the decisive third game with an easy finish. That was, until the first three Panthers reached to make it 6-2, and saw Quintilio exit with a line of six innings, nine hits, four runs, no walks and nine strikeouts.
Paul Gaeta came in to close out the frame but after a strikeout, wild pitch and RBI ground ball, Gaeta gave up three straight singles himself which saw the tying run get to third and go-ahead run make it to scoring position at second. Gaeta got the Petrels out of the jam with his second strikeout on a 3-2 pitch, ending the threat and the game.
Quintilio earned the winning decision to move to 3-0 on the year, while Gaeta picked up the save which was his second.
Oglethorpe got the scoring going early in this one to take the early lead. Brick Conway, who went 4-for-4, had an RBI single up the middle in the first to score Cooper Krause, then Conway later came home to score on a Mason Pearcy RBI single, also up the middle.
Birmingham Southern made it 2-1 in the third on a solo home run, but Oglethorpe extended the lead once again with a Conway single in the third, then a pair of singles from Jonathan Cruz and Conway in the fourth.
Conway added four RBI's and a run scored to his 4-for-4 effort at the plate. Jaxson Corr also had multiple hits with a 2-for-4 effort alongside two runs scored.
Oglethorpe 13, Birmingham Southern 7 | Series Game 2
It was a display of offense in the early going as BSC plated two runs in the top of the first before Cruz doubled home two runs in the bottom half and added an RBI sacrifice fly in the third to take the lead.
The Panthers swung the lead in the fourth on a two-run homer, then made it 5-3 with an RBI groundout still in the fourth. It was 6-4, Panthers, in the sixth when the Petrels scored nine unanswered runs to go ahead 13-6.
Stewart entered in relief in the fifth inning and went on to hold BSC scoreless across the sixth, seventh and eighth while Oglethorpe went into its big lead. He picked up the win with a line of five relief innings, three hits, one run, three walks and one strikeout.
Meanwhile, eight Petrels had hits in the win, including Krause who went 3-for-5 with three runs. Cruz went 2-for-4 with a whopping five RBI's and two runs.
Up Next
Oglethorpe hosts Covenant Tuesday at 6 p.m. in a nonconference game back here at Hermance Stadium. Next weekend, the Petrels will be on the road to face Berry in a three-game SAA set.
