JACKSON, Miss. – The No. 1 seed Millsaps College baseball team used eighth-inning heroics to best No. 4 seed Berry, 5-2 in Game One of the SAA Baseball Championship at Twenty Field on Thursday.
Senior
Nick Tarantino was terrific nearly going the distance. He tossed 8.1 innings with six strikeouts, no walks and two runs against.
Berry (20-21) tallied seven hits against Tarantino and one against freshman
Fred Fields in relief. Fields recorded the final two outs for his first career save with no walks allowed.
Millsaps (29-12) saw junior
EJ Ousley bat 2-for-4 with an RBI and run scored. Senior
Bradley Pelle homered, scored twice and walked.
Graduate
Case Page (run, hit by pitch), senior
Evan Scott (RBI, run, walk), junior
Mason Morgan (walk) and graduate
Branyan Bounds (RBI) all added a single.
Berry the first hit of the game in the third inning and scored the first run in the fourth. The Vikings used two singles and two ground outs to make it 1-0.
It became to 2-0 in the top of the fifth courtesy of a single, sacrifice bunt and double down the left-field line.
Ousley broke up a perfect-game chance with a one-out single in the bottom of the fifth. He advanced into second base with a wild pitch moments later.
Morgan then walked to keep the inning going. However, a fly out and strike out pushed the game into the sixth frame.
Pelle tallied his 14th homer of the season to get the Majors on the board by crushing the ball over the right-field fence, cutting the deficit to 2-1.
Page followed with a single and Scott walked, but a fly out closed the bottom of the sixth.
Millsaps continued to apply pressure with a leadoff single by Morgan in the seventh. Ware replaced Morgan on the bases with a fielder's choice and then stole second with one out.
Bounds followed by singling Ware to put runners on the corners. The Berry defense forced a strikeout and a ground out to close the threat.
The Vikings looked to extend their lead with a one-out double in the eighth. After a ground out, the runner advanced to third off an error. An ensuing ground out ended the opportunity.
The Majors caught fire a produced late-game heroics with four runs in the bottom half of the eighth.
Pelle walked and Page was hit by a pitch to open the frame. Scott and Ousley stepped up with back-to-back singles to tie the game and take the lead at 3-2.
After a pitching change, Morgan forced an error on an initial sacrifice bunt attempt. The throw to first went wide and allowed Scott to score from second base.
Ousley also moved up to third base and was able to score and make it 5-2 off a Ware sacrifice fly. A ground out with the bases loaded ended the eighth.
Tarantino opened the ninth with a ground out. He would surrender a hit, which brought Fields into pitch.
Fields closed out the game with a strikeout looking, a double against and finally a 6-4-3 double play.
The Majors will next battle No. 3 seed Rhodes in the Winner's Game 3 on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m., with the loser playing again at 6:30 p.m. against the winner of the 3:15 p.m. elimination game. Live video and live stats are available for all games at gomajors.com.
To keep up to date with everything surrounding the Millsaps College baseball program follow the Majors on X and Instagram, like Millsaps Majors Athletics on Facebook or visit gomajors.com.
Founded in Jackson, Mississippi in 1890, Millsaps College is a national liberal arts college dedicated to academic excellence, open inquiry and free expression, the exploration of faith to inform vocation and the innovative shaping of the social, economic and cultural progress of our region. Consistently ranked as one of the best values in higher education, Millsaps has been praised by Colleges That Change Lives, The Princeton Review, Forbes Magazine, U.S. News & World Report, The John Templeton Foundation, and The Fiske Guide to Colleges.
