CONWAY, Ark. – The Millsaps baseball team (11-7, 1-3 SAA) fought hard on the diamond but fell short in the late innings to Hendrix (11-5, 4-0 SAA) on Friday at the Warrior Baseball Field.
Graduate
Branyan Bounds (two runs, walk), junior
Gray Berry (one RBI, walk) and
Jackson Ware (walk, steal) all batted 2-for-4. Senior
Case Page led the team with two RBIs and classmate
David Abbadessa scored twice with two walks..
Graduate
Wil Wood pitched five innings while striking out five batters with five hits, three walks and three earned runs against.
A junior
Evan Scott single up the middle would put the Majors ahead 1-0 in the top of the first inning to plate Bounds.
Page would extend the Majors lead to 2-0 with a ground out to the Warriors' third baseman, scoring junior
Bradley Pelle.
In the bottom of the first inning, Hendrix would strike for a run with a sacrifice fly.
The top of the second inning saw graduate
Robert Vassallo ground out to second base to send sophomore
EJ Ousley home to extend the Majors' advantage to 3-1.
Hendrix would fall behind further with three Millsaps in the top of the fifth inning. Pelle would reach first from a throwing error by the Warriors pitcher and later advance to second base on the same error and also bring Abbadessa to home plate.
Berry then singled home Bounds before a Page bases-loaded walk brought Pelle home. Ousley would end the fifth inning with a sacrifice fly to bring Scott in as the Majors continued their early success, leading 7-1.
In the bottom of the fifth, Hendrix grabbed two runs to make it a 7-3 deficit. Millsaps would make it 8-3 in the top of the sixth as Abbadessa scored on an error.
Hendrix collected run in both the sixth and seventh innings to make it 8-5.
The Warriors continued to claw back and eventually took the lead at 10-8 with five, two-out runs in the eighth.
Ware walked and stole second in the top of the ninth, but Hendrix would hold on for the 10-8 decision in Game One.
The Majors will remain in Conway to face Hendrix in a doubleheader on Saturday, beginning at 12 p.m. Live stats and video will be available at gomajors.com.
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