JACKSON, Miss. – The No. 1 seed Millsaps College baseball team fought valiantly but was bested by No. 3 seed Rhodes College, 8-4 in a matchup of undefeated teams in the SAA Baseball Championship at Twenty Field on Friday.
Rhodes (27-16) advanced to the Championship Game, while Millsaps will face No. 2 seed Centre College in an elimination game at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
The winner will face Rhodes 45 minutes following the conclusion of the Millsaps-Centre game. An if-necessary game will then be played at 11 a.m. on Sunday if Rhodes is defeated.
Graduate
Wil Wood was solid in six innings pitched. He struck out three batters, while only surrendering three runs, three walks and six hits.
Fifth year
Jackson Hood tossed a scoreless ninth inning with a strikeout and a walk.
Graduate
Branyan Bounds batted 3-for-5 with two runs scored. Seniors
Gray Berry (2-for-5, run, hit by pitch) and
Bradley Pelle (2-for-4, RBI, hit by pitch) posted a pair of hits.
Senior
Evan Scott (run, walk) and graduate
Case Page (two RBIs, double) added a hit each for Millsaps (29-13).
The Lynx scored a run in the opening inning off a single, walk, passed ball and fielding error. Woods forced a strikeout and then dove for a pop up, which was turned into a double play.
Millsaps soon tied up the contest in the second was a Scott walk, junior
EJ Ousley hit pitch and classmate
Mason Morgan walk. Senior
David Abbadessa was hit by a pitch, bringing Scott home with the bases loaded.
The Majors grabbed a 2-1 in the fourth after Bounds singled, was bunted to second and reached third on a fly out. Page stepped in by smoking the ball down the left-field line for the two-out RBI.
Bounds later began the sixth with a lead-off single and moved to second on an Abbadessa sacrifice bunt. Berry and Pelle followed with singles to bring Bounds home. Page then bunted toward first base to allow Berry time to score from third.
The lead grew to 4-1, but Rhodes added five runs soon after in the top of the seventh to tie the contest and take the lead. A three-run homer and two-RBI single did the offensive damage for the Lynx.
Rhodes added two more runs in the eighth off a sacrifice fly and error.
Millsaps loaded the bases in both the eighth and ninth innings but were held from scoring. The Lynx downed the Majors, 8-4 on Friday.
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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.
