ANDERSON, S.C. --- Tusculum College's Trey Drewery recorded six hits and scored seven runs on the day as the Pioneers split a South Atlantic Conference baseball doubleheader at Anderson University Saturday afternoon at Memorial Stadium.
The Trojans (11-20, 8-10 SAC) scored three runs in the bottom of the 10th inning to rally to a 13-12 victory in the first game. TC (19-11, 9-8 SAC) bounced back with an 11-8 win in the night-cap to capture the weekend series 2-1.
Game 1: Anderson 13, Tusculum 12 (10 innings) (Box Score)
Josh Hickman scored the game-tying run in the seventh and drove in the winning run with his sacrifice fly in the 10th in Anderson's 13-12 victory.
Tusculum led 10-4 heading to the seventh inning, but the Trojans scored six runs on just two hits, while sending 11 batters to the plate to tie the game at 10-10. TC pitchers walked five batters in the frame, including twice with the bases loaded.
The game remained tied until the top of the 10th inning when Andrew Bowerman led off with a single and later scored on an Anderson error. Scott Gibson drove in Trey Drewery with his two-out base hit as Tusculum led 12-10 heading to the bottom of the frame.
Garrett Bernando led off with a base hit and moved to second on Nathan Galliford's single up the middle. Brett Cash was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Paul Como drew a walk to pull the Trojans to within a run at 12-11. A TC wild pitch tied the game when Galliford scored from third. With runners at second and third, Hickman sent a fly ball to right field which was deep enough to allow Cash to tag up and score with winning run.
Tusculum pounded out 16 hits in the opener, including Drewery's 3-for-6 performance that included four runs scored.
The Pioneers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning when Jeremiah Tullidge and Drewery led off with back-to-back hits. Heath Comerford brought both of them in with his three-run homer to center field, his fourth round-tripper of the season.
Anderson answered with three runs in their half of the frame as the first five Trojans singled, including RBI hits from Bernardo and Steven Cooper. Como drove in the third run with a sacrifice fly.
TC added four runs in the second inning and another in the third to lead 8-3. The big hit of the second inning was a two-run homer by Bowerman.
Anderson plated a run in the fifth thanks to Galliford's solo home run. But TC got two of those runs back in the sixth inning, sparked by a RBI single off the bat of Taylor Foster.
Joining Drewery with multiple-hit outings were Tullidge, Foster, Gibson, Vinny Ferrara and Bowerman.
Galliford paced the Trojans' 12-hit barrage with his four-hit performance, while Bernardo went 3-for-6 for Anderson.
Reliever Evan Jordan picked up the win in relief to even his record at 1-1. Jordan pitched five innings, allowed six hits, four runs, two earned, struck out two and walked three.
Tusculum reliever Griffen Ebel suffered the loss to slip to 0-1 on the year. Ebel was one of nine Pioneer pitchers to see action in Saturday's first game.
Game 2: Tusculum 11, Anderson 8 (Box Score)
Tusculum rallied from an early deficit, but had to hold off another late inning Anderson charge as the Pioneers won 11-8.
TC's McKenly Berry (1-0) got the start in his collegiate debut, pitching five effective innings where he allowed six hits, six runs, walked one with three strikeouts.
Anderson scored twice in the first inning thanks to Cooper's two-run homer in the opening frame of the night-cap.
Anderson starter Landon Beck retired nine of the first 10 batters he would face, including seven in a row to start the game.
But the Pioneers erupted for four runs in the fourth inning, sparked by Drewery's solo home run to start the inning. Comerford drew a walk and advanced to third on Foster's double down the right field line. Gibson gave Tusculum the lead with his two-run single up the middle and he would later score himself on John Topoleski's RBI double for a 4-2 TC lead.
Tusculum added two more runs in the fifth inning, including pinch-hit RBI single by Nick Rodriguez for a 6-2 TC lead.
Kyle Bailey hit a two-out solo homer in the fifth, but Tusculum answered with three runs in the sixth to increase the TC advantage to 9-3.
But the Trojans would not go away as they got three runs back in the bottom of the sixth inning. Cooper led off with a walk, while Galliford and Cash followed with consecutive singles to load the bases. T.J. Miller relieved Berry and surrendered a two-run single to Como as the Tusculum lead dwindled to 9-5. Hickman's RBI ground out made it 9-6 contest. But Miller got another ground out and a foul out to end the threat and preserve the 9-6 lead.
Tusculum scored twice in the top of the seventh thanks to Topoleski's RBI double and run-scoring single by Drewery for an 11-6 lead.
Miller got the first out of the inning, but three consecutive singles resulted in a run as the TC lead shrunk to 11-7. Cash drove in the second run of the inning with his sacrifice fly to make the score 11-8. But that's as close as the Trojans would get as Miller secured the win with a fly out to end the game.
The trio of Drewey, Foster and Topoleski accounted for three hits each for Tusculum as the Pioneers finished with a dozen hits in the contest.
Miller picked up the save as he pitched the final two innings for the Pioneers.
The Pioneers will travel to Lee University on Tuesday night for a 6 p.m. game.
- TC -
