ROME, Ga. — The Shorter University baseball team swept a non-conference doubleheader against visiting Tusculum University Saturday at RH Ledbetter Field.
The Hawks (28-15) won by scores of 10-4 and 5-4 to complete the weekend sweep over the Pioneers (23-23).
Tusculum will close out the regular season next weekend with a three-game South Atlantic Conference series at Limestone University. TU is currently in fifth place in the league standings.
Game 1: Shorter 10, Tusculum 4
Kody Krause’s two-run double in the seventh inning sparked a four-run frame as Shorter won Saturday’s first game 10-4. The Hawks rallied from a 3-2 deficit and scored four times in the fourth to retake the lead for good.
Shorter tallied 13 hits including Jacob Pajer who went 2-for-5 with three RBI, while Kobe Jones, Alex Barnes and Thomas Schroeder IV had multiple-hit outings.
Tusculum was led at the plate by Murphy Flood who posted his second straight 4-for-4 performance and his third 4-hit game of the season. TU got home runs from Zane Keener and Will Samuelson, while Flood, Jake Absher and Max Schmarder each accounted for doubles. For Keener, it was his 20th career home run and scored his 154th career run which moves him into the TU top-five.
Shorter starter Seth Crowe improved to 9-0 on the season as he went six innings, allowed seven hits, four runs, three earned and walked two batters. TU starter Brice Anders (5-5) suffered the loss in his 4 2/3 innings of work. TU’s Trejen-Fox Birdwell blanked the Hawks in the eighth and recorded a strikeout.
Game 2: Shorter 5, Tusculum 4
Shorter overcame an early 2-0 deficit and scored five straight runs en route to a 5-4 victory over Tusculum in Saturday’s night-cap.
Jones belted a two-run homer in the third inning to tie the game and Pajer and Jones had RBI singles in the fourth to put the Hawks in the lead for good. The Hawks added an important insurance run in the fifth as Tusculum mounted rally in the seventh which came up short as the Pioneers left the go-ahead runs on base.
Tusculum jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning as Darien Farley hit a RBI double and Connor Jurek followed with a sacrifice fly.
In the TU seventh, trailing 5-2, pinch-hitter Jayden Singleton led off with a walk. Blaze McCauley followed with a single. After a fly out, Will Samuelson belted a RBI single to left field to bring home Singleton to make it a 5-3 contest. Seth Sherman pinch ran for McCauley and he would score on a Flood single to trim the deficit to one.
Matt Navarro took over for starting pitcher Coy Martin on the mound and got an infield pop-up and a ground out to end the game. Martin (4-1) earned the victory while Navarro posted his second save of 2024. TU starting pitcher Luke Maicon (1-1) was tagged with the loss as he went four innings, while Jake McKenna allowed two hits and an unearned run in his two innings of relief.
Keener went hitless in the second game to end his 10-game hitting streak. But he was hit by a pitch for a 45th time in his career (2nd most in TU history) to move his on-base streak to 23 straight, the ninth-longest in Tusculum history.
Despite the sweep, Flood had a monumental series where he went 10-of-12 (.833) with three doubles, one home run, four RBI and a walk.
