Huntingdon rallies late to beat No. 2 Birmingham-Southern
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Birmingham-Southern | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 9 | 17 | 2 |
|
Huntingdon | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | X | 11 | 12 | 1 |
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon baseball team overcame a six-run deficit to knock off second-ranked Birmingham-Southern 11-9 on Tuesday night.
The Hawks (15-10) trailed 8-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning, but scored six runs in the seventh and three runs in the eighth to complete the comeback. The Hawks put together seven hits in the two innings and finished the game with 12 hits.
The win was the fifth straight for the Hawks and the fourth straight over a nationally ranked team. Huntingdon swept 14th-ranked Piedmont in a conference series this past weekend.
Down by six runs in the bottom of the seventh, the Hawks chipped away at Birmingham-Southern (18-5) and used four RBI singles, a sacrifice fly and a balk to tie the game.
An RBI single by Anthony Spivey, a balk that scored Alec Raley and an RBI single by Mason Throneberry made it an 8-5 game before a sacrifice fly by Coleson Taylor, an RBI single by Josh Hines and an RBI single by Patrick Kucera tied the game.
With the bases loaded and two outs, Huntingdon almost took the lead in the seventh. Spivey, who hit a solo home run in the third inning, just missed out on a grand slam that was caught at the right-field fence.
Birmingham-Southern scored a run in the top of the eighth to briefly re-take the lead. But an RBI single by Throneberry tied the game in the bottom of the eighth. With two outs, Hines reached on an error and Throneberry scored to give the Hawks the lead. Landon Sessions added the final run on a balk.
Throneberry took the mound in the top of the ninth and earned his third save of the season. After hitting the first batter, Throneberry got a strikeout and forced a fly out before striking out the final batter.
Kucera (2-0) earned the win in 2/3 of an inning of relief in the eighth inning.
Throneberry and Spivey each had two hits, two RBIs and two runs. Hines had two hits and two RBIs, including an RBI triple in the fourth inning. Sessions had two hits and three runs and Kucera had two hits, an RBI, a run and two stolen bases.
Raley, Gunnar Peters and Cheston Wesson each scored one run and Taylor had one RBI.
Huntingdon returns to action this weekend at 23rd-ranked Maryville in a three-game USA South Athletic Conference series. Game 1 is set for 5 p.m. Central on Friday.