GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — Tusculum University’s Ty Smith homered twice as the Pioneers split a South Atlantic Conference baseball doubleheader with Limestone University Saturday afternoon at Pioneer Park.
Tusculum got solid pitching performances from Phillip Miller and Mason Huffstickler while the Pioneers led wire-to-wire in an 11-3 win in the first game. In the night-cap Limestone’s Winston Parke went 4-for-4 with two RBI and two stolen bases as the Saints held off a late TU rally in a 10-9 decision.
Limestone claimed the weekend series taking two of the three games to improve to 11-12 overall and 6-6 in the league. Tusculum (6-15, 2-7 SAC) snapped a six-game conference losing streak with the victory in Saturday’s opener.
Game 1: Tusculum 11, Limestone 3
Phillip Miller scattered five hits and allowed one run with three strikeouts in his six innings of work in Tusculum 11-3 victory. For Miller, it was his first win in a Pioneer uniform as he shined in his 86-pitch performance. Mason Huffstickler picked up the three-inning save, scattering five hits, allowed two runs and walked two batters to earn his first save of the year.
Tusculum finished with a dozen hits with five of them going for extra bases. Ryan Ortega finished with a pair of doubles while Caleb Webster, Omar Carreras and Max Schmarder also had two-hit outings.
The Saints recorded 10 hits as Peter Adams went 3-for-4, while Zach Greenberg and Tyler Hughesman had multiple-hit games.
Tusculum scored the first two runs of the day in the bottom of third as Justin Millsaps drew a two-out walk and Smith homered to left field for a 2-0 lead. TU added a run in the fifth as Webster led off with a walk and scored from first on Ortega’s hit-and-run double down the left field line to up the advantage to 3-0.
The Saints scratched a run off of Miller in the sixth as Cole Kirschner hit a two-out double, moved to third on Hughesman’s infield single and scored on an Adams’ RBI single.
The Pioneers answered with two unearned runs in their half of the sixth thanks to Webster’s two-out, two-run single as Tusculum stretched the lead to 5-1. TU put the game out of reach in the seventh as 11 Pioneers went to the plate to score five runs to stretch the lead to 10-2. Tusculum added another run in the eighth on Carreras’ solo homer.
Game 2: Limestone 10, Tusculum 9
Limestone used a six-run frame in the fourth and jumped out to a 10-2 lead, but had to hold off a late Tusculum rally as the Saints prevailed 10-9.
Parke accounted for four of the Saints 10 hits while scoring twice and driving in two more as Limestone has won five of its last seven games while winning back-to-back SAC series.
The Saints took a 1-0 lead in the second inning as Adams singled, moved to third on Parke’s hit-and-run single and later scored on Corey Hodierne’s sacrifice squeeze bunt.
Tusculum answered quickly in the bottom of the frame as Jurek singled and moved to third on Landon Dockery‘s double to tie the game. Dockery moved to third on a wild pitch as Schmarder hit a bending liner to left but LU outfielder Ethan Bonocco made a diving catch. The play was deep enough for Dockery to tag up and score from third, but the spectacular grab limited a potential big inning.
That inning came for Limestone in the top of the fourth as the Saints sent 11 batters to the plate. LU scored six runs on four hits two walks, one hit batter and two Tusculum errors for a 7-2 lead for the visitors.
Limestone added a run in the fifth and two more in the sixth to stretch the lead to 10-2. But the Pioneers would battle and made things interesting at the end.
Tusculum would bat around in the sixth as TU scored four times including a two-run single from Schmarder and a RBI double off the bat of Carreras as the deficit was trimmed to 10-6. After TU reliever Aiden Tipton retired the seventh in order, Tusculum came to its final at-bat with some momentum.
Smith got things started with his second homer of the day, a solo shot to left field to make it a 10-7 game. Carreras drew a walk as Ben Catrambone, who picked up the save in Friday night’s Limestone win, had the opportunity to do it again.
Carerras stole second and Jurek drew a walk to bring the tying run to the plate with no outs. Catrambone got an infield fly out, before Schmarder got aboard with a fielder’s choice to load the bases. Austin Collins grounded out to first which allowed pinch-runner Caleb Mulcahy to score to make it a 10-8 contest. With first base open, the Saints intentionally walked Webster to face Ortega. Ortega would draw a walk to drive in the third run of the inning as TU trailed by one. Catrambone fell behind in the count 2-0 to Millsaps, but worked his way back to a 2-2 count. On the fifth pitch of the at-bat, Catrambone hit the outside corner for a strikeout to end the game and secure his second save of the series.
Limestone starter Jake Contino (1-0) picked up the victory as he went five innings, allowed two runs on four hits, one walk and six strikeouts. At one point, he retired nine straight Tusculum batters.
Hodierne and Hughesman each went 2-for-3 while Greenburg drew three walks. Webster had another two-hit outing to extend his hitting streak to 12 games in a row. Schmarder finished the game with three RBI and his single in the sixth extended his personal best hitting streak to 12 straight and has reached base safely in 17 consecutive contests.
Tusculum continues its season-long seven-game home-stand on Tuesday when TU hosts King University for a 5 p.m. contest. The Pioneers defeated the Tornado 8-6 on Feb. 25 in Bristol.
