GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tusculum University baseball team swept a doubleheader over 29th-ranked Molloy College Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Park in the first meetings between the two schools.
The Pioneers (6-3) rallied from a 5-3 deficit scoring twice in the seventh and the eventual game-winning RBI by Christian Ortega in the eighth in a 6-5 win. Blaze McCauley went 3-for-4 with four RBI and three TU pitchers combined on a six-hit shutout as TU won 14-0 in the night-cap.
The Pioneers and Lions (0-2) will close out the three-game weekend series with Sunday's 12 p.m. contest.
Game 1: Tusculum 6, No. 29 Molloy 5
Ortega went 2-for-4 including his game-winning single in the eight and Justin Parker pitched two shutout innings of relief for the win in Tusculum's 6-5 victory over the Molloy Lions.
The Pioneers totaled 12 hits including two-hit performances by Ortega, Zane Keener, Murphy Flood and Will Samuelson.
The Lions jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning thanks to a two-out, two-run double off the bat of Matt Yip.
The Pioneers tied the score at 2-2 with a pair of runs in the fourth inning on Samuelson's RBI double followed by Zach Wilson's run-scoring single.
Molloy regained the lead in the top of the fifth on Thomas Brady's two-out double, but the Pioneers knotted the score at 3-3 in the bottom of the frame on a two-out double by Luis Ezra.
The Lions scored a run each in the sixth and seventh innings including Jake McCarthy's solo homer to take a 5-3 lead.
The Pioneers tied the game again with two runs in the bottom of the seventh on Murphy Flood's double and a two-out single by Samuelson.
In the bottom of the eighth, Keener reached on a one-out single and crossed the plate on Ortega's two-out base hit for TU's first lead of the day.
The Lions got the game-tying run aboard to lead off the ninth, but Parker (1-1) retired the next three batters including a pop up for the final out of the game.
Game 2: Tusculum 14, No. 29 Molloy
Tusculum scored four run in the second including McCauley's two-run double as the Pioneers blanked the Molloy 14-0 in Saturday's second game as TU ran its winning streak to three and a row.
TU starter Harbor Jefferson pitched five shutout innings to move to 3-0 on the season. He scattered five hits, walked none and struck out seven in the victory. Brady Salyards worked around a single in the sixth and Tyler Harmon pitched a perfect seventh with a pair of strikeouts to combine on the shutout.
The Pioneers finished the game with 10 hits including two hits each by McCauley, Ezra and Rudy Fernandez.
In the second inning, Ezra led off with a double and later scored on a throwing error by Molloy. McCauley lined a double to right center to plate two runs and Keener capped the scoring in the frame with his RBI single.
The Pioneers scored three times in the third, including a two-run single by McCauley and Keener's bases-loaded walk and a 7-0 TU lead. TU scored twice in the fourth and five times in the fifth frame to put the game out of reach.
