4-12-16
By: TMC Sports Information Office
The Truett-McConnell baseball team swept a three-game series against the Reinhardt Eagles over the weekend.
Reinhardt 2 TMC 6
In the first game of the series, Truett got excellent starting pitching from Chris Stevens (9 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 6 K) as he pitched a complete game to earn the win. Stevens got plenty of run support in the win. The Bears offense put the first run on the board in the second inning when Caleb Buchanan led off the inning with a walk and came around to score after being doubled to third by Tate Gaines and grounded home by Sean Cheshire.
The Eagles rallied to take a 2-1 lead with single runs in the third and fourth innings. Truett came back in the bottom of the fourth inning after Austin Bishop executed a perfect RBI bunt with a runner on third. The Bears took the lead for good in the next inning on a RBI double from Patrick Overstreet that scored Austin Thomas who singled to lead off the inning. Truett blew the game open in the bottom of the seventh inning by scoring three runs on two hits and three walks. Buchanan drew a RBI walk and Gaines hit a two-run single to account for the three RBIs in the inning.
Gaines led the offensive attack by going a perfect 3 for 3 with a walk and two RBIs. Chris Carden also went 2 for 3 with a walk in the win.
Reinhardt 1 TMC 2
In the second game of the series, Truett scored two first inning runs and made them hold up for the 2-1 win. In that first inning, Patrick Overstreet led off with a double and Chris Carden followed with a RBI single. Carden came home to score three batters later on a perfectly executed safety squeeze bunt by Tate Gaines. The Eagles got their only run of the game in the top of the fifth inning to make things interesting, but Chris Carden (2.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K) closed out the fifth inning and turned the Eagles away empty handed in both the sixth and seventh innings to preserve the win, while earning the save.
Jared Oliver (3+ IP, 3 H, 0 R, 4 BB, 3 K) started on the mound for the Bears and pitched 3 scoreless innings to earn the win before giving way to Caleb Jameson (1.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 0 K) after he faced one batter in the top of the fourth inning. Offense was at a premium as the Bears only had five hits in the win.
Reinhardt 3 TMC 5
Truett had to come from behind in the final game of the series in order to earn the sweep. The Eagles scored the first three runs of the game with two runs in the third inning and a single run in the fourth. Chris Cardenstarted the comeback in the bottom of the fourth inning with a solo homerun that snuck over the leftfield fence to make the score, 3-1. In the fifth inning, the Bears put together a two-run two-out rally to tie the game.Patrick Overstreet delivered the run scoring hit with a two-run single to centerfield with the bases loaded. Truett completed the comeback in their final at-bat, again with two outs, as Chris Stevens jumped on the first pitch he saw and delivered it over the left-centerfield fence for the game winning two-run homer. Chris Carden came on to earn his second save of the series by pitching a scoreless seventh inning to preserve the win.
Luke Henderson got the start and pitched well to earn his team leading sixth win of the season. Carden led the offense by going 2 for 3 with a homerun in the win.
The Bears are now 24-17 overall on the season and 10-8 in conference play. This also marks the first time in school history that the bears have swept Reinhardt. They will play five straight road games before returning home for a series with Union College on April 22nd. The first of those five road games will be Wednesday, April 13th at Southern Wesleyan University beginning at 3:00 PM.
