The Roanoke College baseball team dropped a doubleheader to Virginia Wesleyan on Sunday but bounced back with and extra innings win over Averett University on Monday. The Maroons took a 6-5 win in 10 innings on Cody Shell’s walk-off hit.
In the bottom of the 10th, Sam Watson led off with a single and Gavin Kandrick followed with a bunt for a single. Scott Ellis then laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Watson and Kandrick to second and third. The Cougars intentionally walked Will Merriken to load the bases with one out. Shell then singled up the middle to score Watson and give RC the win.
RC started the scoring in the bottom of the second inning when Watson reached on a dropped third strike with one out. With two outs, Ellis drew a walk to move Watson to second. Watson then stole third and scored on a throwing error from the AU catcher to give RC an early 1-0 lead.
Averett responded with two runs in the top of the sixth but Eli Sumpter evened the game at 2-2 with an RBI double in the bottom of the seventh, scoring Shell, who reached on a walk.
In the bottom of the eighth, Jack Howard singled up the middle and went to second on a passed ball to start the inning. Following a walk from Watson, Kandrick bunted to move the duo to second and third. Ellis lifted a sacrifice fly to right field, scoring Howard. Merriken kept the inning going with a single through the right side, plating Watson. Shell doubled to move Merriken to third and he scored during the following at bat on a wild pitch to give RC a 5-2 edge.
Averett rallied for three runs in the top of the ninth to tie the game started by a lead off single from Jones. Chase McKinney hit an RBI single to score Nick Winston before a Roanoke error allowed Tyler Bianco to score. A.J. Hart closed out the scoring with a sacrifice fly, scoring McKinney, to even the game at 5-5, setting up RC’s extra inning win.
Matthew Franklin (3-1) earned the win, giving up only one hit in the 10th inning while Dallas Smithers (2-6) was tabbed with the loss, giving up one run off three hits in the final 1.1 innings.
The win was the 20th of the season for RC, as the Maroons improved to 20-6. The fourth ranked team in Division III had a tough time Sunday, falling 7-2 and 4-3 to visiting Virginia Wesleyan, who improved to 18-7 overall and 10-0 in the ODAC with the sweep. The two losses dropped RC to 11-2 in the conferece.
In the first game Sunday Wesleyan scored five first inning runs, highlight by a three run home run by Brady Fallon. Sean Guida led the Maroons, going 2-for-4.
In the second game Virginia Wesleyan used a run in the eighth inning to break a tie and earn a 4-3 win.
With Wesleyan up 3-0, Watson reached on a Marlin error and Ellis singled to left to start the seventh inning. The pair then moved to second and third on a wild pitch. With two outs, Guida hit a triple, scoring both Watson and Ellis. Eli Sumpter tied the game with an RBI single in the next at-bat to make it 3-3.
The Marlins scored what proved the be the game-winner in the top of the eighth off a sacrifice fly. off the bat of Kussmaul, scoring Deon Hammond who drew a lead-off walk.
The Maroons were scheduled to play at Guilford on Wednesday, followed by a home game with Guilford today. They’re off this weekend, returning next Tuesday, April 17, for a 7 pm game with Greensboro at Kiwanis Field.