The NAIA’s top-ranked Lee University baseball team lost 12-10 and 5-4 in Southern States Athletic Conference games Saturday at Southern Wesleyan, dropping the Flames to 35-6-1, 18-3 in the league.
Lee broke open a scoreless game in the series finale with a four-run seventh inning but gave up four in the bottom of the inning, including a three-run home run by Kendall Ray, and the Warriors (18-23, 6-15) went ahead in the eighth.
Roberto Reyes was 2-for-4 for Lee in that game after he and Jorge Saez each homered and drove in three runs in Saturday’s first game, when Blake Barber and Corey Davis each was 2-for-4 and scored twice and Edmanuel Rivera also had two hits. Tyler Schwartz was 3-for-4 with five RBIs for SWU, which pinned Patrick Merkling with his first loss in eight decisions.
• Sewanee 2-8, Oglethorpe 1-7: At Sewanee, the Tigers pulled out two one-run Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference wins, the second after falling behind 7-1.
Scott Ward’s two-run sixth-inning single made a winner of Marshall Ussery in the opener, with Adam Schmidt getting the save from a two-on, no-out situation in the seventh. Ward and Wilson Nealy had two hits each for Sewanee (11-12, 2-3). Ward’s second followed singles by Jack Whaley and Alan Komorowski and a sacrifice bunt by Ryne Sullivan.
Nealy, Jack Rogers and Allen Thigpen had two hits in the second game for the Tigers, and Whaley’s one-out hit in the ninth ended the game.
• LaGrange 10-5, Covenant 3-9: At Covenant, the Scots took the GSAC series with Eddie Jamerson (3-0) allowing only two earned runs in six innings in the finale, when James Rollins was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs and David Lockwood homered, singled and drove in four runs. Kurt Wiles was 2-for-4 and scored twice.
David Miller was 4-for-5 with four RBIs and Brent Kinsey homered and scored three runs in LaGrange’s win, while Rollins and Sterling Witt homered for Covenant (12-11, 4-5) and Ben Chambers, Will Clelland, Rollins and Lockwood had two hits apiece.
• Bryan 4-3, Virginia Intermont 1-2: At Dayton, the Lions went to 29-11 overall, 11-4 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference, as pitchers Jason Ridenhour and Adam Sanders combined for one seven-hitter and Shane Clawson, Kenny Knudsen and Sanders combined for another. Kevin Layne was 2-for-2 and homered along with DeWayne Boyd in the first game for Bryan, and Doug Stroup was 3-for-3 with the Lions’ only RBI in a three-run fourth inning in game two. Josh Harris was 2-for-2.
• Chattanooga State 7-0, Motlow State 0-3: At Chattanooga State, Tyler McClure pitched a two-hitter and Connor Gilbert went 3-for-4 as the hosts took the first game of the TCCAA doubleheader, but the Bucks (22-14, 5-9) scored single runs in the second and third innings of game two and another after a sizable rain delay to salvage the split. The Tigers (29-10, 10-4) scored all seven runs in the first game in the fourth inning, beginning with Matt Sorrow’s two-run homer.
• Volunteer State 13-6, Cleveland State 0-7: At Cleveland, the visitors got 14 hits and a no-hitter with eight strikeouts from Zach Curtis in the first game but fell in the rematch on Derek Shugart’s one-out single in the bottom of the eighth inning, after a Colby Harmon pinch-hit double and an intentional walk for Cody Commons. Commons, Michael Hargrove and Damo DeMatteo each was 2-for-3 in the win for the Cougars (22-13, 6-9), and DeAndre Allen was 1-for-2 with two walks, an RBI and two runs scored.