NASHVILLE, Tenn. --- The Trevecca Nazarene baseball team erupted for a six-run, seconding inning and took advantage of four Tusculum errors as the Trojans defeated the visiting Pioneers 13-10 Wednesday night at Jackson Field.
TNU (16-17) avenges last month's road loss to Tusculum (24-12) as the Trojans answered every Pioneer comeback attempt to even the season series at a game each.
Trevecca accounted for 13 hits, while Tusculum recorded eight hits and 13 walks, including six in TC's 3-run second frame. The 13 walks issued to the Pioneers are tied for the fifth-most in program history and the most since drawing 13 free passes against Anderson in 2015.
TNU jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first before Tusculum scored three times in the second inning, including back-to-back bases load walks by Nick Lacina and Bradley Evans as the Pioneers led 3-1.
In the bottom of the second, the Trojans sent 11 batters to the plate as TNU scored six times highlighted by Carter Wiseman's two-run, two-out single as the Trojans led 7-3.
Trevecca added a run in the third before Tusculum answered with two runs each in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth, Lacina scored on Daulton Martin's ground out. Bradley Evans to score on a wild pitch. In the top of the fifth inning, Zack Finchum walked and later scored on a wild pitch. Frankie Valle would come into score on Jeremy Glore's sacrifice fly as TC trailed 8-7
TNU answered with two unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth thanks to RBI singles from Brown and Chandler Miller to extend the lead to 10-7. The Trojans added another unearned run in the seventh when Griffin Ganick reached on an error and scored on Bryson Shelton's RBI hit.
In the Tusculum eighth, the Pioneers made another charge and scored three times, including Josh Bennett's pinch hit sacrifice fly and back-to-back RBI singles from John Topoleski and Jeremy Glore as TC trailed 11-10.
But TNU added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth thanks to Tyler Burns' two-run single for a 13-10 advantage.
John Bolton came into pitch in the ninth as he worked around a two-out walk to record his first save of the year.
Tusculum's Zach Lippincott led the Pioneers at the plate with his two hits as the visitors had their chances leaving 14 runners on base. Lacina, Martin and Finchum were walked three times each by TNU pitching.
Trevecca reliever Thomas Leone (1-3) pitched 1.1 shutout innings in relief to pick up his first win of the year. TC pitcher Dalton Boslooper (0-1) suffered the loss in his first decision of the year.
Tusculum returns to action on Friday when they host 27th-ranked Catawba for a huge South Atlantic Conference series. Friday's game begins at 6 p.m., followed by Saturday's 1 p.m. doubleheader. It is also Senior Weekend for the Pioneers.
