MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Auburn Montgomery Baseball Team split the first two games of its Gulf South Conference doubleheader against Union University on Saturday, April 9, falling 21-7 in game one and taking game two 17-8.
The split brings the Warhawks' record to 21-15 overall and 11-9 in GSC action.
GAME ONE
Clayton Phillips logged a pair of hits while Zach Dew drove in a team-high two runs. Jackson Murphy added a hit and an RBI with Kasey Clark also accounting for an RBI.
Luke Turner (5-2) was tagged with the loss, surrendering six earned runs over 3.2 innings with three strikeouts. Michael Myers (1.2), Jake Chase (1.2), and Will Collins (1) combined to toss the final 4.1 innings of relief.
Union cracked the scoreboard first in the top of inning number one on an RBI single to left, but AUM would respond by crossing home on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first to tie the game at one. Nick Freeman led off the frame with a double to left-center and was brought to third by a Union error before scoring the Warhawks' first run.
Union would go on to score seven unanswered, with five runs in the top of the second and a pair in the top of the fourth to go up 8-1. The Bulldogs knocked five hits in the second inning, with a two-run homer capping off the frame.
AUM added a run in the bottom of the fourth on a sac fly from Dew that plated Caleb Beaver. Beaver led off the frame with an infield hit and later came around to third following an infield hit by Brody Syer and a Bulldog passed ball.
The Bulldogs blew the game open with 13 unanswered runs, tallying three runs in the sixth and 10 in the eighth. Union slugged two home runs in the sixth, and three in the eighth to aid in its scoring efforts.
AUM was able to bring five runs across in the bottom of the eighth before eventually giving way to the 21-7 final score. Clark picked up the lone RBI in the inning, drawing a bases-loaded walk with two outs.
GAME TWO
Zach Feaster socked a pair of home runs in the contest to bring his season total to five while finishing with a season-high five runs batted in. Dew registered a three-hit, three-RBI, and three-run performance while also going bridge for the fourth time this season.
Beaver additionally drove in three runs while Joseph Hartsfield knocked a pair of doubles and scored twice. Freeman also turned in a two-hit game while scoring three times.
Andrew Cronan (7-2) notched his GSC-leading seventh win in the contest, striking our four batters over four innings. Clay Slagle (2) allowed just two hits over the final three innings to earn his second save of 2022.
AUM set the tone early in game two, scoring eight times over its first two at-bats. The Warhawks used an RBI double by Beaver and a two-run shot by Dew to grab a 3-0 lead in the first and took advantage of a pair of Bulldog errors in the second that helped prolong the inning and see them score five times. A Beaver sac fly and a Dew two-out single accounted for the runs batted in during the frame.
Union answered its next time up by knocking a grand slam in the top of the third to trim AUM's lead to just 8-4. The Warhawks responded with three runs in the bottom of the fourth on Feaster's first big-fly of the day to take an 11-4 lead.
The Bulldogs hung up another four-spot in the top of the fifth, with a pair of homers highlighting the scoring action that made it 11-8 in favor of AUM.
The Warhawks put the game out of reach in the top of the sixth, however, by bringing across six runs on four hits. Feaster brought in the first two on a towering blast down the left-field line, with a pair of sac flies from Phillips ad Beaver, an RBI fielder's choice from Ceman, and an RBI single from Syer accounting for the rest of the damage done.
The Warhawks and Bulldogs will play the rubber match of their Gulf South Conference series on Sunday, April 10 at 1:00 p.m
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