Hawks take down LaGrange in Rd. 1 of conference tournament

WILSON, N.C. – The Huntingdon baseball team opened the USA South Athletic Conference Tournament with a 4-2 win over LaGrange on Thursday.

Seventh-seeded Huntingdon (20-16) scored two runs early, added two more runs in the seventh inning and held off the second-seeded Panthers (27-12). The win marked the 12th straight season the Hawks have won at least 20 games under head coach D.J. Conville.

The Hawks will play No. 3 seed North Carolina Wesleyan (23-16) on Friday at noon Central. The game will be played at North Carolina Wesleyan's Bauer Field. The Battling Bishops defeated No. 6 seed Covenant 3-1 on Thursday night.

Junior Zach McGrady (6-4) went the distance to earn the win for Huntingdon on Thursday. McGrady struck out five, walked three, hit two batters, scattered six hits and allowed two runs in nine innings. All six hits were singles. McGrady allowed just one hit in the final three innings.

Huntingdon scored its first two runs on LaGrange errors. Alec Raley scored on an error in the first inning and Landon Sessions scored on an error in the second inning.

LaGrange cut Huntingdon's lead to 2-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning before the Hawks answered with two runs in the top of the seventh. Mason Throneberry scored on a sacrifice bunt by Josh Jackson and Sessions scored on a Josh Hines single to make it 4-1.

LaGrange added a run in the seventh before Huntingdon closed out the win.

Sessions and Hines each had two hits.