The Greenville University Baseball Team came into the finale vs Principia College looking to push their win streak to double digits after ripping off nine straight wins in the conference.
The Panthers’ offense got started early in the 1st inning when Austin Lawrence hit one right back to the pitcher and a bad throw to first allowed Ryan Taylor to score. Lawrence later scored on a double play ball off the bat of Andrew Torbeck. Principia got on the board in the 3rd with a solo home run, but the Panthers responded in the 5th when Clarence Falls scored on a wild pitch and on Klaiton Wolff’s sacrifice fly to make it 4-1. Principia made it a 4-2 game in the bottom of the inning, but GU would not be denied scoring five runs over the last three innings. Taylor decided to stay hot with a solo home run in the 7th. In the top of the 8th, Issac Whitten had an RBI on a fielder’s choice and Taylor drove in yet another run with an RBI ground-out as well. In the 9th inning, the Panthers continued to pour it on as Sam Hodges scored on a wild pitch and, later in the inning, Ty Maxie had a sacrifice fly to drive in a run.
Adam Lamb had the honors of starting on the mound for GU and pitch. In six innings, he only allowed two hits on four walks with six strikeouts to improve his record to 4-2. Cole Becker, Austin Rexroad, and Wolff came in to secure another Panther victory. Lawrence and Maxie had big games at the plate having many great at-bats this game. The Panthers pushed their streak to ten making short work of Principia in their weekend series.
They continue to sit at the top of their conference as the lone undefeated team in the conference. The team seems to be swinging the bats with confidence scoring runs in the 1st inning of games and having big innings. They also have made teams pay for the mistakes by scoring runs off of their errors. They also have had good pitching come out of the bullpen in late innings to help them secure most of their victories. The Panthers also have run the bases well, allowing guys to get into scoring position to score on base hits or errors by the other team. The Panthers also have been receiving a good contribution from their starting pitching by having the ability to go deep in baseball games averaging around five innings per game. Some of the hottest hitters on this streak consist of Klaiton Wolff who is batting .375 and Ty Maxie who has a .385 average.
The Panthers will look keep the streak going, staying on an undefeated path in conference play as they take on Westminster College. This week in an upcoming two-game series, GU will not have it as easy as last time with the Blue Jays who are coming off a serious sweep of their own with Iowa Wesleyan in a three-game series.
