ATLANTA—A wild comeback that featured a walk-off win followed by a lopsided rubber-game win highlighted a come-from-behind series victory for Oglethorpe's baseball team over Rhodes Saturday afternoon to conclude a three-game Southern Athletic Association set. Oglethorpe dropped Friday's game 11-4 but bounced back to sweep Saturday's doubleheader on senior day with 6-5 and 16-8 victories.
Senior Colby James produced one of the top highlights of the day with a complete game in Saturday's opener, picking up the win when senior Matt Huckabee completed Oglethorpe's three-run comeback with a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth. This opened the flood gates in game two as the Petrels ran away with the rubber game with 14 hits and 16 runs.
Game Three | Oglethorpe 16, Rhodes 8
Using the momentum from a game-one walk-off win, Oglethorpe put up a crooked number in the bottom of the third that proved to be the difference. Seven Petrels came across to score in the inning, starting with Sam Mills on a single from Shane Newsome. Six in a row reached with one out and a sequence of 10 of 11 reached in the inning as Oglethorpe went ahead 7-0 in the seven-inning finale.
Jaxson Corr had one of the last big highlights in the next inning when he belted his first career home run, a three-run shot to left field, in the fourth to make it 10-0.
Rhodes trimmed the deficit down to 10-6 in the next frame, but the Petrels were quick to answer back themselves with three runs in the fifth and three more in the sixth. In all, Oglethorpe's 16 runs came across four innings.
The fifth-inning runs came off another Newsome single, a Trey Kinnan single and a Carter Guarino single. The sixth-inning runs came from a couple of wild pitches followed by a Newsome RBI double.
Kinnan (3-for-3) and Newsome (3-for-5) led the Petrels at the plate in the finale. Kinnan added two runs and two RBI's. Newsome added two runs and three RBI's.
Dylan Quintilio got the start on the bump with the series on the line and came through in a big way. He went the first four innings and only ran into real trouble in the fifth, when he was relieved by Colin Stewart. Stewart went the last three innings to pick up the save.
Quintilio moved to 5-2 with the win while Stewart's save was his third.
Game Two | Oglethorpe 6, Rhodes 5
Early runs proved to be the difference in Friday's loss, and while it looked to be the same way in game one of Saturday's doubleheader, late runs for Oglethorpe turned it into a walk-off win.
Oglethorpe trailed 5-2 in the eighth before Nick Tarantino drove in Sam Mills to make it 5-3. The Petrels threatened for more that inning but came up empty, having one would-be run cut down at the plate and another left stranded on third. It turned out only to set things up for an exciting ninth, as Carter Guarino, Jaxson Corr and Mills all had doubles, the latter two driving in runs to tie the game at 5-5.
With two out, Isaiah Pou then came in to pinch run for Mills at second and Matt Huckabee came in to pinch hit for Alex Steckler. Huckabee delivered with a single up the middle on the first pitch to score Pou and even the series.
Colby James earned the win after tossing a complete game and keeping the Lynx scoreless over the last four innings. Four of the five runs he conceded came off two long balls, the first in the form of a three-run shot in the third. Outside of that one pitch, he held the Lynx to six hits and two runs in the longest start of his career.
James moved to 3-3 on the year with a line of nine innings, seven hits, five runs, two walks and three strikeouts.
Oglethorpe posted five doubles in the win. Mills went 3-for-5 with two of those doubles, Guarino went 3-for-4 with one double, and Cooper Krause went 2-for-4.
Game One | Rhodes 11, Oglethorpe 4
Early scoring doomed the Stormy Petrels as Rhodes hopped out to a 6-0 lead through the first two innings. It was a one-run ballgame the rest of the way, with Oglethorpe cutting the deficit down to 6-3 through five and getting one more back to make it 7-4 through six.
Corr had a couple of productive at-bats in the middle innings with an RBI groundout in the third and a sacrifice fly in the fifth.
Krause and Mills both finished the game with two hits.
Series Notes
Up Next
Oglethorpe finishes the regular season Tuesday at Emory and will head to the SAA tournament next weekend. The Petrels claimed the No. 5 seed and will travel to Hendrix for a three-game series. The winner of the series will advance to the final site the following weekend.
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