CARROLLTON, Ga. — The No. 10 Bellarmine University baseball team split a Saturday doubleheader with West Georgia at Cole Field.
The Knights scored all eight of their runs over the first two innings while winning the opener 8-5 before the Wolves took the tail end 6-4 with a walk-off two-run homer in extra innings.
West Georgia (2-5) took two out of three in the series with Bellarmine (1-2), which extended Saturday's second contest after allowing the tying run to score on an error on a potential game-ending out.
Game 1: Bellarmine 8, West Georgia 5
In Friday's 15-2 loss in the series opener, Bellarmine allowed six runs in the first inning. The Knights turned the tables in Saturday's first game, scoring four runs in the opening frame on sophomore left fielder
Matt Higgins' grand slam and tacking on four more runs in the second for an 8-0 advantage.
Senior center fielder
Alex Phillips led off the game with a bunt single, sophomore third baseman
Jacob Mulcahy walked and senior right fielder
Zac Wiley was hit by a pitch. That set the table for Higgins, who cleared the bases with a grand slam to right.
Bellarmine matched the four runs in the second inning. Mulcahy forced a pitching change after socking a two-run double, and Wiley greeted reliever Cason Greathouse with a two-run homer to left for an eight-run lead.
Greathouse settled in after that and didn't yield another run in throwing 7.0 innings. West Georgia scored four runs in the third inning and one in the fourth, but Bellarmine shut the Wolves out over the last five innings.
In his Bellarmine debut, junior left-hander
Shane Barringer (1-0) collected the win after allowing one earned over 3.1 innings of relief. Senior right-hander
Ethan Cleary, freshman right-hander
Reece Davis and sophomore right-hander
Brandon Pfaadt all tossed 1.0 scoreless inning of relief. Pfaadt struck out two in recording a save.
Phillips went 4 for 5 with two doubles, two stolen bases and two runs scored. Mulcahy and Wiley both scored twice.
Game 2: West Georgia 6, Bellarmine 4
This game, scheduled for seven innings, slipped away from the Knights. In the eighth, senior first baseman
Tyler Neeley cranked a go-ahead solo homer with two outs for a 4-3 lead.
However, in the bottom half, junior right-hander
Deylen Miley, in his Bellarmine debut, nearly worked out of a no-out, second-and-third jam as he followed with two strikeouts, but the Knights then allowed the tying run to score on an error. Bellarmine essentially gave the Wolves five outs in the inning — the first batter reached on a wild pitch on a strikeout.
West Georgia won it in the ninth on Drew Haywood's two-run walk-off homer.
Miley (0-1), who suffered the hard-luck loss, ripped a tying two-run homer in the sixth to knot the score at 3. Bellarmine had scored in the first on a Higgins sacrifice fly.
Wiley went 3 for 4 and Neeley had two hits.
Bellarmine plays a three-game set at Union (Tenn.) University on Friday and Saturday. The doubleheader will occur on the second day.
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GAME 1 BOX SCORE (HTM)
GAME 2 BOX SCORE (HTM)
