GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum baseball team scored 14 runs in the seventh inning as the Pioneers rallied to a 17-10 victory over 15th-ranked West Georgia Wednesday afternoon at Pioneer Park.
Tusculum (19-10) ends a three-game losing streak and splits the mid-week series with the Wolves (21-5), who saw their six-game winning streak snapped.
The Pioneers (19-10) trailed 9-3 heading to the bottom of the seventh as TU sent 20 batters to the plate while utilizing six hits, five walks, three hit batters and took advantage of three UWG errors to score 14 times in the inning. Five batters scored twice in the inning, including Zane Keener and Ben Scartz, who both made three plate appearances in the frame.
Tusculum finished the game with 18 hits with Will Samuelson leading the charge going 3-for-5 with four RBI and a pair of doubles. Christian Ortega and Rudy Fernandez each went 3-for-6 with three RBI, while Dylan Symonds and Scartz had two hits apiece.
West Georgia accounted for 14 hits with Anthony Calabro pacing the Wolves with his 4-for-5 effort.
The Wolves utilized nine pitchers on the day, while Tusculum used five pitchers including Seth Willis as he tossed two innings where he scattered two hits, allowed one run as he recorded the victory to improve to 5-1. Brycen Jones (0-1) suffered the loss for West Georgia as he was one of six pitchers used in the seventh.
UWG jumped out to a 4-0 lead, scoring twice in each of the first two innings. Henry Daniels belted a two-run homer in the first, while Charlie Tull had a RBI single and Sam Ladner had a sacrifice fly in the second.
Tusculum got a run in the bottom of the second as Murphy Flood led off with a single and scored on Samuelson's two-out double to make it a 4-1 contest.
The Wolves added a run in the fourth and three more in the fifth. Joseph Glozier had a two-out RBI single in the fourth, while Logan Fink highlighted the fifth with his two-run blast to left field and an 8-1 lead.
Tusculum plated two runs in the bottom of the sixth. TU loaded the bases and Samuelson doubled off the centerfield wall to make the score 8-3. The Wolves got one of the runs back in the seventh as the first three batters reached base. Cade Hohl led off with a double, Daniels was hit by a pitch and Calabro followed with a RBI single.
Willis took over on the mound and got three straight infield pop outs to end the inning and limit the damage.
The Tusculum seventh would last nearly 45 minutes as four players had multiple RBI in the inning including three each by Ortega and Fernandez.
Tusculum returns to South Atlantic Conference play this weekend as the Pioneers travel to Lincoln Memorial for a three-game series beginning with Friday's 4 p.m. contest in Harrogate.
