HARTSVILLE, S.C. --- Six Tusculum errors doomed the Pioneers including two in the bottom of the 10th inning as the host Coker Cobras won 10-9 Friday night at Schmotzer Stadium in South Atlantic Conference action.
Coker's Kody Hanna scored the game-winning run all the way from first base thanks to a two-out throwing error by the Pioneers.
The Cobras (11-19, 6-4 SAC) snap a four-game losing streak at the hands of Tusculum (12-15, 3-10 SAC), who drop their third league outing.
The loss spoils the career offensive outing by Tusculum's Tyler Ranel who belted a pair of home runs including his two-out, solo blast in the top of the ninth to tie the score at 9-9 and send the game to extra innings.
Tusculum jumped out to a 3-0 lead early in the contest, scoring twice in the first inning and once in the second. Will Samuelson drove in the first two runs with his two-out single, but he was thrown out at second base for the final out of the inning.
Zane Keener made it 3-0 as he drove in Ryan Dos Santos with his two-out single. But like Samuelson in the first, Keener was thrown out at second on the play.
The Cobras answered with six straight runs with only three of them being earned. Coker scored twice in the bottom of the second on a Jackson Williams RBI double, followed by Tripp Kimmel's run scoring hit to make it a 3-2 game.
The Cobras scored four times in the fourth including a solo home run by Bryan Castillo and RBI hits from Phill Griffor and Brady Jeffcoat to take a 6-3 lead.
The Pioneers regained the lead in the top of the fifth on Ranel's one-out grand slam for a 7-6 Tusculum advantage. In the bottom of the fifth, the Cobras took advantage of a TU outfield error on Kimmel's fly ball to left. He would later score the game-tying run on Andrew Scudder's sacrifice fly.
Tusculum retook the lead in the sixth as Wes Reynolds doubled and scored on Christian Ortega's RBI single for an 8-7 score.
The Cobras struck back with a pair of runs in the bottom of sixth on back-to-back sacrifice flies from Jeffcoat and Castillo for a 9-8 lead for the home team.
The score remained that way until the top of the ninth as reliever Cooper Thomas got a pair of fly outs to start the final frame, but surrendered the tying home run to Ranel, who becomes the second Pioneer this year to hit two homers in a game this season (Wes Reynolds at Carson-Newman).
Coker was poised to win the game in the ninth as the Cobras loaded the bases with one out against TU reliever Justin Parker. But Parker ended the threat with back-to-back strikeouts to end the inning.
In the bottom of the 10th inning with Hanna at first base with two outs after reaching on a fielder's choice, Jeffcoat stepped to the plate. His grounder to Ortega at third base was fielded, but the throw to first base was wide of the mark into right field foul territory. Hanna was able to motor all the way to the plate with game-winning run.
The Pioneers out-hit the Cobras by a 14-12 margin as Keener, Ortega, Samuelson and Ranel all had multi-hit games. Ranel finished with five RBI, while Samuelson had two. Griffor led the Coker bats with three hits, while Castillo, Williams and Kimmel tallied two hits each.
Thomas (1-0) picked up the victory as he pitched the final three innings with the only blemish coming on the home run ball to Ranel. He also finished the game with three strikeouts. Parker (2-2) suffered the loss as he went 1.2 innings, allowed two hits, one walk, two strikeouts and the one unearned un in the 10th.
The two teams will wrap up the weekend series with Saturday's 1 p.m. doubleheader.
