BRISTOL, Tenn. — King University used a 3-run seventh inning including Jackson Medure’s go-ahead sacrifice fly to lead the Tornado to a 7-6 non-conference win over visiting Tusculum on Tuesday.
King (7-14) avenges last week’s 11-8 loss to the Pioneers (9-13) while snapping TU’s four-game winning streak.
Down 6-4 with one out in the seventh, five straight King players reached base including Adrian Vidal who tied the game with his two-run single. After a walk to Mitchell Victor to load the bases, Will Webb took over on the TU mound for Luke Maicon, who started the inning. The eight-pitch at-bat to Medure ended when he lifted a fly ball to center field, which was deep enough for the tagging Justin Smith at third base to score the go-ahead run.
King’s Colin Goldsmith retired Tusculum in order in the eighth, while closer Jonathan Webster worked around a lead-off walk in the ninth with a pair of fly outs and a strikeout to end the game.
After making two outs to start the bottom of the first, Tommy Reagan drew a walk and scored on Kale Richardson’s two-run homer. Justin Smith followed with a double and scored on Vidal’s RBI single to right as King led 3-0.
Tusculum answered with three runs in the top of the second. Caden Rector was hit by a pitch and moved to second when Kolby Watson walked. Jake Absher drove in Rector with a RBI single and was followed by a Gagen bunt to move the runners into scoring position. Jake Smith followed with a two-run single down the right field line to tie the score at 3-3.
The Pioneers took their first lead of the game in the third when Ryan Ortega led off with a double and later scored on Watson’s two-out single up the middle as TU went up 4-3.
King tied the score at 4-4 when Victor led off with a walk, moved to third on a TU fielding error and scored on Jose Ruiz’s base hit.
Tusculum regained the lead in the fifth frame as Alejandro Ponte got aboard with a one-out single, while Watson and Absher drew back-to-back two-out walks to load the bases. Jack Gagen broke the tie with his two-run single to center to bring home Watson and Ponte as the Pioneers led 6-4.
TU finished the game with 10 hits as Gagen and Ponte accounted for two-hit performances. King tallied nine hits including two hits each by Richardson, Justin Smith and Vidal.
Goldsmith (1-0) picked up the victory for King as he went 1.2 innings retiring all five batters he would face. For Webster, it was his second save of the year.
Ortega was hit by a pitch for a 13th time this year, which ranks seventh in Tusculum history. The TU single-season mark is 20 by Daulton Martin during the 2020 campaign.
The Pioneers return home this weekend to host Newberry for a three-game South Atlantic Conference beginning with Friday’s 6 p.m. opener.
