The Roanoke College men are looking to wrap up a spot in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference baseball tournament this week as they conclude the regular season with four conference games.
Roanoke was at Emory & Henry on Tuesday and at English Field at Virginia Tech Wednesday to play Lynchburg College. They’ll wrap up the regular season Saturday at home with a doubleheader against Randolph-Macon, beginning at 3 pm. That will be played at Kiwanis Field.
Coming into the week the Maroons had a 23-13 overall record with a 7-9 record in the ODAC. They were tied with Emory & Henry for sixth place in the conference, and the top six teams make the tournament. Guilford was just a half game behind at 7-10.
The Maroons split a doubleheader with first place Washington & Lee last Friday, losing the first game, 5-4 in 11 innings, but rallied to win the nightcap, 5-2. W&L is tied with Shenandoah for first place at 14-3.
Friday’s first game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning when W&L’s Chadwick Feeley and Ryan Weston each walked to open the inning, then with one out Cory Paton singled home Feeley to make it a 1-0 game.
RC came right back in the top of the fifth inning to tie the game when Will Black singled to lead off the inning, moved to second on a Scott Ellis bunt and got to third on a passed ball. Sean Guida would bring Black home on an RBI groundout to make it 1-1.
Following a rain delay in the bottom of the sixth inning, W&L went up 2-1 in the seventh inning when Feeley delivered a two-out RBI double to give the Generals the lead.
In the Roanoke eighth inning, Collier Donald was hit by a pitch to lead off. He went to second on a Dean Hermanson bunt and scored on a single by Will Decker to tie the game at 2-2. Later in the inning, Craig Kiley doubled to advance Decker to third and they both scored when Sam Watson reached on an error, giving RC a 4-2 lead.
W&L got an RBI single by Paton in the bottom half of the eighth to make it 4-3 before Matt Wasson was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to tie the game.
In the decisive 11th inning, Washington and Lee loaded the bases with no outs and got a single from Weston to win the game. Kiley took the loss after going three innings in relief, dropping his record to 1-1. Danny Devereux improved to 7-1, giving up one run in 3.2 innings of work.
In the second game Roanoke tied the school record for baseball wins in season with a 5-2 victory and 23 total wins. Roanoke got on the board in the third inning when Decker singled home Donald and Guida to make it a 2-0 game.
With the score tied at 2-2, Roanoke pushed across a run in the sixth inning when Kiley singled to open the inning, went to third on a double by Drew Mikula and scored to make it 3-2 on a Black sacrifice fly.
After the first two batters were retired in the Roanoke eighth inning, Mikula had an infield single before being lifted for pinch runner Cody Shell. Shell moved to third on a wild pitch and Black walked to put runners on first and third for Eli Sumpter who singled to make it a 4-2 game.
Steven Loney went 5.2 innings in relief to pick up the win. Loney allowed just three hits and struck out four to improve to 2-1 on the season. Decker, Mikula and Sumpter each had two hits for the Maroons.
