GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Sean Cotten went 2-for-4 with a double and a home run to lead the Tusculum College baseball team to 9-6 win over Stillman College Wednesday afternoon at Pioneer Park. The Pioneers (25-13) record their 11th consecutive victory, while sweeping the two-game, mid-week series over the visiting Tigers (20-21).
Tusculum finished with 10 hits, marking its 14th straight game with double-digit hits.
Sophomore Tyler Collins (2-1) earned the victory in his first collegiate start, while senior Raymond Ruggles retired the side in order in the ninth inning for his first save of the year. Collins went six innings, where he scattered six hits, allowed four runs, one earned, walked one and posted five strikeouts.
Nate Grabowski went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBI, while Sean Finucane and Payden Houser also tallied two hits each. Grabowski and Houser extend their hitting streaks to 14 in a row, while senior Jared Richmond was held hitless to end his hitting streak at 18 straight. Richmond went 0-for-1 with a walk and was hit by a pitch, twice.
Stillman got on the board first in the second inning when Sean Blair led off with his 13th double of the season. He would later score the first run of the day on Mike Jackson's sacrifice fly.
The Pioneers responded with two runs in the bottom of the frame. Cotten blasted his 10th home run of the season, a solo shot off the scoreboard in left field. Houser reached on a two-out single and scored on Rolondo Bonner's 10th double of the year for a 2-1 Tusculum lead.
TC added two more runs in the third as the Pioneers parlayed three walks and a two-run single by Grabowski to increase Tusculum's advantage to 4-1.
The Tigers plated an unearned run in the fourth inning as the Pioneers committed a pair of errors and Patrick Chamberlain singled home Jackson to make the score 4-2.
Tusculum tallied two more runs in the fifth frame as Finucane doubled home Grabowski from first base. Finucane would cross the plate himself following a wild pitch and a passed ball for a 6-2 lead.
In the sixth inning, it was Stillman who answered as the Grayson Crawford led off with a walk and Bryant reached on a single. With two outs, Chamberlain hit a grounder to first base, but went under the glove of Richmond and scoring two runs.
The Pioneers scored three runs in the seventh inning as Richmond was hit by a pitch for a second time on the day. Grabowski moved Richmond to second with a single and Finucane followed with a RBI single up the middle. Cotten picked up his 12th double of the year to drive in Grabowski and Paul Finger followed with a sacrifice fly to make the score 9-4.
In the eighth inning, Justin Bryan connected on a two-run homer to left field to trim the deficit to three (9-6). The inning continued for Hampton Gibbs as he drew a walk and Rey Valdes reached on a one-out walk. Reliever Cody Stites came aboard and struck out Jack Hazelrig and Kyle McCreles to end the threat.
Hazelrig and Chamberlain each accounted for two hits for the Tigers.
Tusculum returns to South Atlantic Conference play this weekend as the Pioneers travel to Lenoir-Rhyne University for a three-game series, beginning with Friday's 7 p.m. opener.
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