Harry Davis
Staff Writer
On Friday, February 2, the Sewanee Baseball team defeated the LaGrange Panthers, ranked tenth, 13-5 before they lost the following games on Saturday 5-4 and 6-0.
The LaGrange Panthers have been a dominant team in recent years and had a 40-6 record last year. They were ranked high in both the D3 baseball and ABCA/Collegiate Top 25 polls throughout the year and even reached the number one slot in both polls in early May. Sewanee, although better than average last year, lost twice to LaGrange 10-3 and 16-4.
The game started out defensive in the first inning with only one hit by the Tigers before LaGrange’s offense exploded for five runs in the second inning. After that tough inning, the Tigers settled in for the next four innings, playing defensively until the Tiger’s offense finally got momentum in the seventh inning.
At the top of the seventh inning, the Tiger’s began to put players on base with Chris McNulty (C’20), Max Murray (C’20), and Beau Allen (C’18) loading the bases. Tyler Dunbar (C’20) then singled to left field to allow McNulty to score. The inning closed with two more outs to make the score 5-1 in LaGrange’s favor.
The offense began to pour in for the Tigers in the top of the eighth as they scored eight runs helped by five walks by LaGrange. Lucas DeSantis (C’19) then ended the inning for the Tigers with three straight outs. Sewanee scored four more runs in the ninth inning to bring the final score to 13-5.
Overall, it was a great game for the Tigers who had an opportunistic offense. Sewanee outscored LaGrange 13-5 yet only had one more hit than LaGrange. In the following game, Sewanee lost 5-4 in a very tight contest in which they outhit the Panthers 10-6 and left 10 on base as opposed to the Panthers six. Sewanee ended the series with a 6-0 loss to finish the weekend at 1-2.
McNulty, an infielder, was named Southern Athletic Association player of the week with a .357 batting average and a double, four RBI and three runs scored. McNulty was a key player in the eight-run eighth inning for the Tigers as he doubled, helping Jared Demkowicz (C’20) to score before singling to center field later in the inning allowing Demkowicz and Derek Hullings (C’18) to score.
Sewanee will open home play on Saturday, February 17 with a three-game series against Spalding University with two games on Saturday and one on Sunday.