GREENVILLE, S.C. – The Wofford baseball team battled back from a five-run deficit to enter the ninth inning tied at six with the #13 Georgia Bulldogs at Fluor Field Tuesday night. After Georgia scored in the top of the frame, the Terriers got two runners on base in the bottom of the ninth but unfortunately could not bring them home, dropping the midweek affair 7-6. Wofford falls to 2-5 on the season, while Georgia remains perfect at 8-0.
Dalton Rhadans (1-1) suffered the loss after pitching the final 3.0 innings for the Terriers. He allowed four hits and just one run, striking out three.
Dom Agron made his first start of the season, hurling 1.2 innings and allowing six runs.
Luke Stephens tossed 1.1 innings of scoreless baseball, allowing just a hit and a walk while punching out two.
Holden Wilder threw 2.0 scoreless frames, striking out two.
Carter Bailey was also effective, pitching a scoreless 1.0 inning of work before relenting to Rhadans. Bailey tallied two strikeouts.
Collin Caldwell (1-0) earned the win in relief as the sixth Bulldog pitcher in the contest. He tossed just 0.2 innings, surrendering only a walk. Jack Gowen (2) pitched the final inning out of the bullpen, earning the save.
The Terriers tallied 11 hits and worked 10 walks as a team tonight, but 15 runners were left on base.
Jack Renwick,
Ryan Galanie and
John Dempsey each totaled two hits in the game, with Galanie and Dempsey both reaching base three times by virtue of also drawing a walk apiece. Though Wofford scored six runs, only two hitters notched an RBI: Galanie and
David Wiley. Wofford continued to run the bases well, swiping four steals in the game thanks to Renwick,
Lawson Hill, Dempsey and
Marshall Toole. It was Toole's first-career steal in his first-career start.
Georgia struck first immediately, grabbing an early 1-0 lead with a first-inning sacrifice fly.
Wofford quickly pulled level, responding with an RBI triple off the bat of
Ryan Galanie in the bottom of the frame.
The Bulldog bats exploded in the top of the second, as five runs came around to score. The first was by way of an RBI groundout. An infield single followed by a throwing error plated another run. Then a double and triple each drove home a run to extend the lead. The final blow was a single up the middle, making the score 6-1 in favor of Georgia.
Wofford took advantage of some miscues by the Bulldogs to secure four runs in the bottom of the third. The Terriers loaded the bases for
David Wiley, who worked a walk to plate Galanie. A wild pitch brought home another run, and then a throwing error by the pitcher on a pickoff attempt allowed two Terrier runners (
Brice Martinez and
Brennen Dorighi) to score. Wofford was just one run down, 6-5.
The Terriers secured that equalizing run in the bottom of the fifth when Martinez scored on a passed ball. The teams were level at six all.
The bullpens took control, with neither side relenting until the top of the ninth. The Bulldogs scored a run on a single up the middle to retake the lead.
In the bottom of the ninth, Wofford secured runners at first and second with just one out in an attempt to comeback. However, back-to-back strikeouts did the Terriers in, locking the 7-6 loss.
Wofford will return home tomorrow night after three-straight games at Fluor Field. First pitch against the UNC Asheville Bulldogs is scheduled for 6:00 p.m. at Russell C. King Field.
