OAKLAND CITY, Ind. --- Taylor Rakes recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts and posted his third complete game of the season in Tusculum's 6-2 road win at Oakland City Saturday afternoon at Pinnick Field.

With the victory, the Pioneers (30-18) secure their 11 consecutive 30-win campaign, while the Mighty Oaks fall to 13-27 on the year. The two teams will close out the three-game weekend series with a doubleheader on Sunday starting at 2 p.m. (EST).

Rakes recorded his 200th career strikeout in the contest, making him the second player in program history to achieve that feat (209 strikeouts - 2nd in TC history). Rakes also became the program's all-time leader in innings pitched with 284.2, surpassing TC Sports Hall Famer Ken Hughes' total of 276.2 from 1991-1994.

Tusculum rattled off a dozen hits in the win, including Trey Drewery's 3-for-4 performance with a pair of doubles, two runs scored and two RBI. Tripper Crisson added a pair of hits with three RBI, while Vinny Ferrara, Matt Henriksen and Pat Holleran tallied two hits each.

Oakland City finished with eight hits on the afternoon, including two hits each by Marc Rogier, Lucas Swartzentruber and Cordell Snyder.

Tusculum got on the board first when Andrew Bowerman led off the game with walk and scored on Vinny Ferrara's double down the left field line, his fifth of the season. TC added another run in the second inning when Drewery doubled to center field and scored on Crisson's two-out RBI single.

The Mighty Oaks cut the deficit in half with a run in the bottom of the second as Swartzentruber reached on a one-out single. The next two batters would reach to load the bases, before A.J. Beach drove in OCU's first run with a fielder's choice.

Tusculum got that run back in the third when Verrara legged out an infield single and came into score on Drewery's two-out double down the right-field line for his second double of the game and 13th of the season.

Rakes would scatter three singles over the next six innings, including eight of his 11 strikeouts.

TC added three insurance runs in the eighth inning as the Pioneers accounted for four hits, including a two-run single by Crisson and Joe Polichetti's RBI hit.

OCU's Chaz Ferguson led off the ninth with a solo home run to make it a four-run contest, but Rakes closed out the contest surrendering a double and tallying two more strikeouts.

Rakes (7-2) scattered eight hits, allowed two runs, walked none and his 11 strikeouts were a career-high and the fifth-most in a single-game by a Pioneer. He has fanned 84 batters this season, which are the third most in a single-season by a TC pitcher.

In what was most likely his final collegiate start on the mound for Tusculum, the two-time All-South Atlantic Conference performer improves his career record to 26-7 (3rd most wins in TC history), including his ninth complete game on Saturday (T4th in TC history).

- TC -