The Aquinas baseball team won game three over Carolina to win the series on Sunday afternoon (Mar. 6) in Mocksville, North Carolina. The Saints led wire-to-wire as AQ struck out 14 Bruins on their way to an 8-5 win. The Saints record improves to 6-7 on the season as Carolina drops to 9-9.
AQ jumped on the Bruins early in the top of the first inning by scoring three runs before CU could come to the plate. All three runs were scored with two outs, beginning with a double to center field by
Nathan Wilcox.
Braden Brown and
Nathan Hughes, who both singled earlier in the inning, scored on the play. After stealing third, Brown was able to score on a passed ball by the Carolina catcher.
The Bruins cut the lead down to one after hitting a solo home run in the bottom half of the first and executing a double steal in the fourth inning.
The Saints extended the lead back out to two in the fifth inning as Hughes smacked another double to center field and an error by the center fielder allowed
Dane Smitz to come around to score. The advantage grew back out to three in the sixth as
Lorenzo Cupri scored on another passed ball by CU.
Another solo home run by Carolina cut the lead back to two in the sixth, but AQ was able to blow the game open in the seventh inning to gain a five-run lead. With the bases loaded and no outs,
Jake Paganelli brought in Hughes on a sacrifice fly to right field for the first run.
JD Gillies then laid down a bunt single that allowed
Braden Nawrocki to score. Then, an RBI groundout by
Kelvin Aracena plated Wilcox to make the score 8-3.
The final runs were scored by the Bruins in the eighth inning as a two-run home run made the final score 8-5.
Zach Marshall gained his first win in a Saint uniform after pitching six and a third innings and striking out 11 hitters. The three runs allowed were on six hits, two walks, and one hit by pitch.
Hunter Morrison relieved Marshall in the seventh inning with one out as AQ executed a strike 'em out, throw 'em out play to end the inning.
Josh Avink came in for Morrison in the eighth after two runs scored with one out. Avink got a pop out and ground out to end the inning and then gained the save in the ninth after sending the Bruins down in order.
Both Brown and Hughes collected multi-hit games as Wilcox had two RBI.
Aquinas travels to Laurinburg, North Carolina tomorrow (Mar. 7) to begin a two-game series against St. Andrews with a single game at 2:00 PM.
