No. 13 Huntingdon takes series from No. 17 Methodist

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon baseball team downed Methodist University 7-1 on Sunday to close out a three-game USA South Athletic Conference series.

In a battle of top-20 teams, the 13^th-ranked Hawks won two of the three games against the 17^th-ranked Monarchs. Huntingdon won the first game 16-2 on Friday night before losing 8-3 in Game 2 on Saturday.

The series win was the fourth for Huntingdon (18-5, 10-4 USA South) in five conference series this season. This was the first conference series loss for Methodist (18-5, 9-3 USA South) this season.

In Sunday's win, Huntingdon took the lead with five runs in the third inning and added a run in the sixth inning and a run in the eighth inning. Junior Wallace Henry frustrated the Monarchs for eight innings before John Crawford closed the game in the ninth inning.

Henry (4-1) scattered three hits, struck out eight, walked two and gave up one run to earn the win. Henry faced just three batters in four of the first five innings and did not face more than four batters in any inning. Crawford faced four batters in the ninth, striking out two, walking one and forcing one fly out. Crawford ended the game with a strikeout.

Tied 0-0 in the third inning, Huntingdon sent 10 batters to the plate and scored five runs to take a 5-0 lead. Bradley Harris scored the first run of the game on an error before a sacrifice fly by Chris Fisher brought in Jake Elrod. Heath Haskins drove in Wes Powell with a single to make it a 3-0 game before a two-run single by Danny Coleman Jr. scored Garrett Breland and Will Cosby.

Elrod scored on sacrifice fly by Haskins to make it a 6-0 game in the sixth inning. The Hawks closed the scoring in the eighth inning with Elrod scoring on a single by Breland.

Haskins finished the game 3-for-3 with two RBIs, Coleman had two hits and two RBIs and Powell had two hits and a run. Elrod had a double and scored three runs, Breland had an RBI and a run, Fisher had one RBI and Cosby and Harris each scored one run.

For the series, Haskins was 6-for 12 with nine RBIs, three runs, a home run and two doubles, Powell was 7-for-15 with five runs and three RBIs and Fisher was 7-for-14 with four runs and two RBIs.

Records: Huntingdon (18-5, 10-4 USA South); Methodist (18-5, 9-3 USA South)

Coming Up: Huntingdon will play at Birmingham-Southern on Tuesday at 5 p.m.