GREENEVILLE, Tenn. --- Tusculum junior Seth Willis pitched a seven-inning no-hitter in Saturday's second game to highlight the Pioneers' baseball doubleheader sweep over Davis & Elkins at Pioneer Park.
Tusculum (6-2) won by scores of 11-1 and 23-0 to increase its winning streak to six in a row.
Willis' no-hitter is the first in recorded program history as he walked one and struck out 13 in his 88-pitch masterpiece.
Game 1: Tusculum 11, Davis & Elkins 2
Tusculum jumped out to a 6-0 lead through the first four innings en route to an 11-1 victory over the Senators in the series opener.
The Pioneers totaled 10 hits in the game including two-hit performances by Tyler Ranel and Rudy Fernandez.
Zane Keener got the scoring started with his two-out, two-run double in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. TU added three runs in the second and another in the fourth.
Davis & Elkins scored their only run of the day in the fifth on a sacrifice fly. But the Pioneers put the game out of reach with five runs in the bottom of the fifth, highlighted by a two-run double from Christian Ortega.
Tusculum starting pitcher Luke Absher (2-1) tossed four shutout innings where he scattered three hits, two walks and posted five strikeouts. Tyler White allowed one run on four hits for his three-inning save.
The Senators totaled seven hits in the opener as Dezron Johnson, Ayden Zimmerman and Gavin Hartman each had two-hit games.
Game 2: Tusculum 23, Davis & Elkins 0
Willis retired the 18 batters in a row to end the game and become the first Tusculum hurler to record a no-hitter as the Pioneers blanked Davis & Elkins 23-0.
Tusculum finished the game with 20 hits including five players with multi-hit outings. Luis Reyes went 4-for-5 with four RBI, while Murphy Flood was 3-for-3 with three RBI and a double. Ben Scartz went 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and scored three runs and drove in a pair with two sacrifice flies. Ortega went 3-for-5 with four runs scored, a triple and two RBI.
Tusculum scored twice in the first, eight times in the second and added six more in the third for a 16-0 lead. TU tacked on seven more in the sixth before Willis stepped on the mound in the seventh with a chance at history. He struck out the first two batters in the seventh before facing Athey. Willis got ahead on the count with a pair of strikes before inducing a ground out to first to end the game and secure the no-hitter.
The two teams will close out the weekend series on Sunday with a 12 p.m. contest.
