By Shaheem Daily, Staff Writer
Fresh off of a big win at IU-Southeast, the Georgetown College baseball team rolled down to Henderson, TN to clash with their Mid-South Conference foe, #22 Freed-Hardeman (FHU). Last year, the Tigers also faced FHU, and they swept the FHU Lions in a three-game set. The Tigers looked to follow suit this year.
Heading into game one of this year’s three game series, the first pitch was set for Friday, April 19 at 6 p.m. The first three innings went by in a blur, and Georgetown was scoreless through the first third of the game. In the fourth inning, the Tigers’ offense scored the opener because of Joshua Duarte. Duarte doubled down the line then promptly stole third and advanced home on a throwing error from the catcher.
Trevor Baker held the mound for the Tigers, and he cruised through the first four and 2/3 innings. In the late fourth inning, Baker loaded the bases after he hit three straight batters. This would come to haunt him because an infield single saw FHU plate two runs and take a 2-1 lead. Baker left the game at the end of the sixth. In Baker’s six innings of work, he only gave up three hits and two runs while striking out eight batters. Julian Huerta relieved Baker in the seventh, and he set down FHU in order in Baker fashion. He worked a clean eighth inning to move it to the ninth, giving the Tigers a chance to come back.
Comeback is exactly what the Tigers would do. To little surprise, Joshua Duarte evened the game up. Down 1-2, Duarte crushed a ball over the right center fence to score. The Tigers were not done as a walk and single gave the Tigers an opportunity to take the lead. Justin Starkey pinch hit for the Tigers, proving to be the right move. Starkey pummeled his first homer of the year to left, and he gave the Tigers a 5-2 lead.
In the ninth, Julian Huerta split two singles with an out before he was lifted for closer Bryson Huwar. Huwar came in and absolutely shut the door. He got two strikeouts and closed the game out for the Tigers. Huerta got the win, moving to 4-1 on the year, and Huwar picked up his fifth save of the year.
In game two of the series, the Tigers’ offense started off hot. FHU got two quick outs, but two singles and a walk saw the Tigers have bases loaded in the first. Jose Cazorla promptly doubled to the left, scoring two runs, and he saw the third run get gunned at home. In the second, the Tigers got two more runs on two singles from Jacob Dezarn and Payton Rios to make the game 4-1. In the third, the Tigers got an additional two runs on Justin Starkey’s second homer of the series, making it 6-1. The Tigers got their final run in the seventh after a two-out RBI single from Austin Vincent.
Anthony Barrera took the bump for the Tigers in game two of the series. Barrera would not have his best outing of the year. In the first, he gave up a run. In the third, Barrera allowed another run after two singles and a hit by pitch. The fourth also did not start off nicely for Barrera because he walked the leadoff batter. However, after a mound visit, Barrera got two quick outs, but he then walked the next two batters to load the bases. This would be all for Barrera, and he exited the game for lefty Mason Mortimer. Mortimer gave up a single to the first batter, which plated two, but he got a pop up to end the frame, with Georgetown leading 6-4. The next two bullpen arms for the Tigers shut the game down. Chris Lenocker and Ashton Deskins worked scoreless frames, giving the game to Huwar in the seventh with a three-run lead. Huwar got a quick out but then gave up a solo homer. He bounced back quickly to close the game out. He picked up his sixth save of the year, and Deskins picked up his first win.
In the third and final game, the Tigers looked to sweep FHU. Three pitches into the game, the Tigers got three singles from Jacob Dezarn, Payton Rios and Joshua Duarte to load the bases before FHU could even blink. A hit by pitch to Hank Schineller gave the Tigers their first run, and it led to a mound visit for FHU. Jose Cazorla then hit a grand slam to extend the lead to five. The offense got rolling again when Duarte led off the third inning with his second bunt single of the game. He then made it all the way to third after a wild pitch and passed ball, and he came around to score on a single from Jarrett Chapman. Later in the inning, the bases were loaded again with two out, and Austin Vincent came up huge for the Tigers. He laced a ball in the left center gap to score two and extend the lead to seven.
The Tigers got their fourth run of the inning when Bryan Sanders scored on a wild pitch. Then in the fourth, Duarte and Chapman got it going again for the Tigers. Schineller hit the Tigers’ second homer of the game, which gave the Tigers a 12-1 lead through four innings. In the sixth, Jose Cazorla hit his second homer of the game to give the Tigers their 13th and 14th runs of the ballgame. The fourth, fifth and sixth innings were not as kind to the Tigers’ pitchers. They gave up 10 runs in the three frames, which made it a ballgame again. Headed into the eighth, FHU got within one run as they scored two on a fielder’s choice and error.
Only up one, the bottom half of the lineup got things going again for the Tigers. After a leadoff out, Jacob VonThaden and Vincent singled to give the Tigers two runners on. The first run of the inning scored on a balk. DeZarn then extended the Tiger lead. Rios singled to give the Tigers runners on the corners. Duarte then collected his fourth hit of the day, and he plated home the 17th run of the day. Chapman collected the final hit of the inning, which saw two runs scored, making the game 19-13. Julian Huerta pitched the final three innings and collected the three-inning save, which was his second save of the year.
After sweeping FHU, the Georgetown Tigers hosted their in-state foe, the University of Pikeville, in a midweek doubleheader. In the first game, Chris Lenocker took the ball for his first start of the year. In the first inning, he worked around a one-out hit to work a clean first. Similarly, in the second, Lenocker induced a tailor-made ground ball to get a double play. In the third, Lenocker got torched for four runs, ending his day. In the fourth, Ian McNabb tried his hand at keeping Pikeville’s lead at 4-0. A leadoff out made things look positive, but three consecutive hits led to a 6-0 Pikeville lead after four innings.
Mitchell Knight was next out in the fifth inning. A leadoff single and a hit by pitch gave Pikeville two runners on. However, Knight worked diligently out of it, striking out the next three without allowing a run. The trend of strikeouts continued for Knight into the sixth, and he struck out the first batter of the inning. He then plunked the next batter, but he once again got a tailor-made ground ball to turn the Tigers second double play of the game. In the bottom of the sixth, the Tigers finally got on the board after Austin Vincent doubled to left-center and came around to score on a ground out from Payton Rios.
However, Pikeville finally got to Knight in the seventh. He gave up three runs, but only one counted after two errors. Making his collegiate debut, freshman Braxton Burse came in to relieve Knight with one out. Jacob VonThaden helped out his freshman pitcher by throwing out a runner at second, which then freed up Burse to strike out the next batter. Lenocker picked up the loss in this game, moving his record to 1-2 on the year.
Going into the second and final game of the doubleheader, the Tigers’ bats got rolling early. A single from Payton Rios and Hank Schineller gave the Tigers their first run and second run via a double from Jose Cazorla. In the second, the long ball would be the Tigers’ friend. Joshua Duarte came to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs, and he promptly deposited a 100.5 MPH homer over the left field fence to make the score 6-0. In the top half of the third, Pikeville cut the lead in half. However, in the bottom frame, Georgetown got one back after an error, making the score 7-3.
After Pikeville got another in the fourth, Joshua Duarte and Hank Schineller went back-to-back hitting homers, making the score 9-4. In the fiftth, two singles from DeZarn and Rios put the Tigers back in business. Schineller collected his third hit, which also saw him plate home another run. Justin Starkey then got in on the parade, singling home two more runs to make the game 12-4.
In the sixth, Ashton Deskins took the mound, and he got hit for two runs on three hits, making the score 12-6. In the seventh, Braxton Burse came on for the second time. Two walks and a hit by pitch loaded the bases, but Burse navigated out of the trouble. With one out, he traded an out for a run, and the Tigers’ lead went to five. Burse came back and got a groundout to end the game and split the series for the Tigers. Mortimer picked up the win, moving him to 4-1 on the year. Duarte and Schineller led the offense with their five hits, three homers and eight RBI.
The Tigers’ baseball team will be back in action on Friday, April 26 at home. They host the #1 seed Cumberlands Patriots. The game is set to begin at 3 p.m., and the Saturday doubleheader will begin at 1 p.m. The three-game series against the Cumberlands will wrap up MSC play for the Tigers. The Tigers currently sit in the #2 seed spot leading up to the Conference tournament.
Categories: Sports
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