ATLANTA, Ga. – The Millsaps Majors Baseball Team opened Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play on Saturday afternoon as they traveled to Atlanta to take on the Oglethorpe Stormy Petrels. The Majors got a terrific performance from their starting pitchers and timely hitting throughout the afternoon to take the first two games 5-2 (7 inn.) and 7-2.
The Stormy Petrels opened things up in the bottom of the first as Joseph Parillo homered to make it a 2-0 game. That was all the Petrels got offensively for the rest of the game as junior Will Edwards buckled down and put down Oglethorpe throughout the game.
Meanwhile, Millsaps chipped away at the lead as junior Wes Perkins hit his second home run of the season to right field to cut the Majors deficit in half. Millsaps struck again in the third to tie it as junior Stephen Gates hit a deep shot to center for a sacrifice fly.
The Majors took the lead in the fourth after junior Jerrod Myers singled home a run with two outs to make it 3-2. The Majors added two more in the seventh to take a 5-2 advantage.
Edwards continued his terrific work. After giving up two runs off three hits in the first, he went on to give up no runs off four hits for the rest of the game while striking out five (six total) to earn his fourth win of the year.
Gates led the way going 2-for-3 offensively with a RBI while Myers, Perkins, and senior Ryan Zemke each added one hit and one RBI.
The Majors started Game Two with a pleasant surprise as sophomore Kevin Wall, a First Team All-SCAC selection a year ago, returned for the first time this season after missing the first half due to injury.
Millsaps got things rolling in the first after back-to-back doubles by senior Drew Leonard and Perkins put the Majors on top 1-0. Wall made his mark in the second as he led the inning off with a double followed by another double to drive him in from senior Jules Roussel.
After adding another run in the fourth, the Stormy Petrels got two runs back in the bottom half of the fourth to cut the game down to 3-2. Like Edwards, that would be all Oglethorpe got as junior starter Will Elmore dominated the Petrels in the other seven innings he pitched.
Millsaps got one run back in the fourth thanks to a RBI single from freshman Keith Shumaker, another run in the seventh thanks to a sacrifice fly from Wall, and two runs in the eighth thanks to one swing of the bat from senior Andrew Evans to go up 7-2.
Elmore gave up two runs off three hits in the fourth, but for the rest of the game gave up no runs off three hits while striking out five total to earn his second win of the season.
Offensively, Wall made his presence felt in his first game back, going 3-for-4 with a RBI and a run scored. Perkins also was 3-for-4 with a RBI while Roussel and Shumaker each picked up two hits. Evans was the RBI leader going 1-for-4 with three RBIs on the day.
The Majors improve to 15-8 on the day with the two wins and 2-0 in the SCAC as they have already won the three game series over the Petrels. Millsaps looks to complete the sweep on Sunday as they take on Oglethorpe at 1 p.m. EST (12 p.m. CST).
