JACKSON, Miss. – The Millsaps baseball team lost to Trinity University 18-7 today at Twenty Field.
Millsaps (21-15, 9-9 SCAC) scored the game's first run in the second after Josh Ordeneaux drew a walk to open the inning. Stephen Gates drove him in from second with a single to right to put the Majors up 1-0.
The Tigers (29-8, 15-5 SCAC) tied the score in the third after getting a leadoff walk of their own paired with a double to center. A scoreless fourth followed from both teams as both starters continued to pitch well.
Millsaps went back on top in the fifth, 2-1, after Jeremy Aliff was hit by a pitch to land him on the paths for Jules Roussel. Jules crushed a double to right, but Aliff wisely held at third as the Tigers got the ball back into the infield. He only had to wait one batter to score as Will Hawkins brought him in with a grounder to the second baseman. Unfortunately, with two outs in the frame Roussel was stranded at third to limit the Majors' runs to just one.
Trinity scored again in the top of the sixth. A double and a wild pitch forced John Marshall Pemberton out of the game after 5.1 successful innings. Eliot Varney came in to attempt to get the final two outs but a fielder's choice and single to center were enough for the Tigers to get the run in before Varney could close it out.
The Tigers broke the game open in the top of the seventh. Varney started the inning with a walk and a single that set up a sac fly by Will Donnan to put Trinity up 3-2. Two walks later and the bases were loaded with one out.
Jason Riggins came in to try and get the Majors out of the jam. He walked in the second run of the inning, keeping the bases loaded for Dylan Early. The Tiger's nine-hitter sent the ball over the right field wall for the grand slam, 8-2.
Will Hawkins came in to staunch the bleeding and got the second out at the plate, striking out Dominick Robusto. However, the Tigers were not finished yet. The last batter Riggins faced, Kevin Jackson, was still at first after drawing the walk as Kyle Felix came to the plate. Felix sent the ball over the right field fence to add two more runs in the inning, 10-2, for the eighth run of the inning.
Hawkins got the final out with a popup to center and got the Majors back at the plate for the bottom of the seventh. Drew Leonard got on base after being hit by a pitch, Jeremy Aliff and Jules Roussel drew walks to open the inning. Hawkins couldn't fully capitalize on the situation as he hit into a double play. Leonard scored on the play, 10-3.
Jake Mills and Josh Ordeneaux drew walks to reload the bases for Stephen Gates who got a single past short to score Mills and Roussel, 10-5. The Tigers brought in their third pitcher of the inning to try and cool the Majors' momentum and Franklin Bay started his outing with a balk that scored Ordeneaux before striking out Wes Perkins to end the inning, 10-6.
Any thoughts of a Millsaps comeback were dashed in the final two innings as the Tigers scored eight more before the end, including a three-run home run from Dylan Early – one base runner away from his second grand slam of the game.
The Majors scored once more in the eighth inning as Jeremy Aliff got a solo homerun to left with two outs.
Eliot Varney took the loss for the Majors, going one inning and allowing four runs on two hits. He walked four in nine batters faced. Ben Klimesh got the win in the start for the Tigers, going six innings allowing three runs on three hits. He walked five and struck out four in 28 batters faced.
The Majors will try to forget this weekend as they prepare for the final three games of the year next week. They will host their rivals from across the road, Belhaven University, at 6:00 p.m. Tuesday night before hosting Southwestern University for the final two regular season games of the year next weekend.
