MCKENZIE, Tenn. – Southern Wesleyan baseball dropped their fifth straight on Friday to SSAC newcomer Bethel (Tenn.). The Warriors lost 7-3 in game one and 6-4 in game two.
The two teams will close out the series on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Warriors will return home next weekend to host Southern Poly State.
Game One
A five-run fifth inning was too much to overcome in this 7-inning affair as the Wildcats defeated SWU 7-3. The Warriors scored twice in the second inning to take a 2-1 lead but the fifth turned the tide in favor of Bethel. Each team added a run in the sixth.
Julio Lara collected two of the team's seven hits as the bottom of the order drove in only RBI in the game. In the second, Lara led off with an infield single. Andrew Howard came in to run for Lara and moved to third on Joe Henderson's single to deep right. Tyler Bice executed a squeeze bunt and Howard scored. Matt Arant followed with a single to score Henderson and the Warriors took a 2-1 lead.
The Warriors could not make much of an offensive push the rest of the way with just three hits over the final five innings. Two of those hits came in the fourth but did not result in a run. In the sixth Daniel Williams led off with a single and advanced to second on a passed ball. After a groundout moved Williams to third he scored on a wild pitch to cut the deficit to three at 6-3. Bethel got the run back in the bottom half of the sixth.
The Wildcats pounded out 13 hits in just six innings, piling up seven hits alone in the fifth inning. An error at third allowed the inning to continue, resulting in four of the five runs being unearned. Matt Craig took the loss to fall to 3-3 while Blake Chandler improved to 2-3 with the win.
Game Two
The Warriors fell behind 4-0 after three innings and were never able to recover against the Wildcats. SWU rallied to score three times in the sixth inning but it wasn't enough as Bethel swept the doubleheader on Friday, 6-4 in game two.
In that sixth inning the Warriors strung together three of their eight hits on the day as Mike Hyman led off with a single, one of his two hits. Joe Henderson continued his hot hitting with a triple into left-center that scored Hyman and Daniel Williams. Henderson had three hits in the game. Luke Hostetler followed Henderson with a run-scoring hit of his own.
The big inning for the Wildcats came in the third as they scored three, two on a triple and another on a sacrifice fly. Bethel scored single runs in the first, fourth and sixth innings. SWU also scored a run in the fourth. The Warriors had eight hits from four players while the Wildcats pounded out 10 more hits as eight different guys produced a base hit.
