LAGRANGE, Ga. - The East top seed NC Wesleyan University baseball team fell 10-7 in the second game of their USA South Conference Championship Series on Saturday to drop the conference title to the West top seed LaGrange College Panthers.
LaGrange (37-6) had defeated Wesleyan 4-1 the night before to take a one-game series lead. The Bishops, 28-17, finish their season with a second consecutive runner-up finish.
LaGrange struck first in its half of the third inning to take a 1-0 lead before N.C. Wesleyan grabbed its first lead of the series by scoring three runs in the bottom of the fourth on back-to-back RBI doubles from juniors, CF Drifton Padgett and catcher Jaiden Barker, to lead 2-1 before Barker scored on a wild pitch.
The Panthers, though, battled back with three runs of their own in the sixth inning off Bishop senior starter Drew Tubb to take a 4-3 lead before the Battling Bishops tied it in the 6th on freshman 3B Javier Quintana's RBI single. In the top of the seventh, LaGrange broke the game open by scoring six runs off junior reliever Chandler Padgett and sophomore reliever Danny Thompson to take a commanding 10-4 lead.
Wesleyan then struck for three runs the following inning to begin their rally, but it would not be enough to take the game as they fell 10-7. RF Cord Butler's RBI single brought home D. Padgett before Quintana came around to score on a wild pitch while Tyson Bass' RBI single would make it 10-7.
LC's Cael Chatham hit a home run and also came in to pitch and got the final four outs for his team to close out the game and earn the save. For N.C. Wesleyan, senior DH Travis Cross and Drifton Padgett each led the team with three hits apiece while Padgett scored 3 runs.
Tubb threw six innings to earn a no-decision allowing 4 runs (only 1 earned) on 7 hits and 2 walks while striking out six. C. Padgett got the loss (5-3) allowing 5 unearned runs on 4 hits in 2/3 of an inning while Thompson finished out the game tossing 2 and 1/3 innings allowing one unearned run on 2 hits and 3 strikeouts.
D. Padgett, 1B Jackson Hobbs and pitcher Kevin Williams were also all named to the USA South All-Tournament Team as well.
Visit the Tournament Website, which includes the Tournament Bracket for more information.
All-Tournament Team
1B-Jackson Hobbs, N.C. Wesleyan
2B-Jake Dacunto, William Peace
3B-Joe Ruth, LaGrange
SS-Cael Chatham, LaGrange
C-David Smigelski, LaGrange (MVP)
DH/UTL-Jared Aldridge, LaGrange
OF-McKinley Erves, LaGrange
OF-Drifton Padgett, N.C. Wesleyan
OF-Gabriel Pallo, LaGrange
P-Baley Coleman, LaGrange
P-Kevin Williams, N.C. Wesleyan
