Clarksville, Ark. – The Millsaps Majors Baseball Team used one run in the sixth and five runs in the eighth to come from behind and shock the Simpson Storm in Game Two on the Ozarks Baseball Classic, 11-10. The Majors grinded out 13 hits for the victory and improved to 4-1 on the season with the win.
The Majors got started things off with a bang in the bottom half of the first as senior Jules Roussel belted a double to right center with one out. Junior Wes Perkins came to the plate and drove in Roussel with a RBI single to give the Majors the early lead.
The Majors struck again in the third as they got runners on second and third as Roussel was hit by a pitch and senior Drew Respess singled and moved over to second on an error. Freshman Keith Shumaker came to the plate and stroked a double to drive two runs in and increase Millsaps' lead to 3-0.
The middle innings were all Simpson College as they scored 10 runs in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings and chased freshman William Chenoweth from the mound. Their biggest damage came in the fourth as they put seven runs on the board including a huge, three run home run from junior outfielder Jake Barr.
Millsaps did get two runs back in the fourth thanks to a huge RBI triple from Roussel followed by Perkins' second RBI of the day.
With the Majors down 10-5 entering the bottom of the sixth, Millsaps' began to claw back into it thanks again to Roussel, who got on base due to walk and then stole second. Senior Andrew Evans came to the plate and score Roussel with a RBI single to cut the deficit down to four.
After neither team could get anything going in the seventh or the top half of the eighth, Millsaps came to the plate looking to get back into it.
Junior Jerrod Myers led things off with a walk followed by a double by junior Stephen Gates to right center. Simpson then intentionally walked Roussel to load the bases up with no outs. After a short fly out kept the runners at bay, Evans came through with an infield single to score one and Shumaker drove in his third RBI of the day to make it a 10-8 game with two outs.
Leonard followed up with a single to score another run and put runners at first and second with two outs. Freshman Samuel Doucet then came to the plate with the Majors down by one and came through in a huge situation with a double to dead center to drive both runs in and give Millsaps an improbable 11-10 lead.
Sophomore Zander Romano, who entered the game in the eighth, finished things off in the ninth inning on the mount to give the Majors the win.
Romano earned the win, his first of the season while Chris Dorff took the loss for the Storm.
Roussel was great for Millsaps as he went 2-for-2 at the plate with two walks and a hit by pitch. The key was that every time he was on base, he crossed home as he scored five runs on the day. Shumaker added a 2-for-4, three RBI day for Millsaps white Evans (2-for-2), Perkins (2-for-5), and Doucet (2-for-5) each drove in two RBIs.
Millsaps concludes the Ozarks Baseball Classic tomorrow afternoon as they will take on the host team, the Ozarks Eagles, at 2 p.m. The two teams have already met once this season as the Majors knocked off the Eagles earlier this season in the DiMirini Classic at Twenty Field, 11-3.
