Baseball win streak snapped, Battling Bishops split with Tufts

Rocky Mount, NC - Behind sophomore Justin Diener's (pictured) first win of the season, North Carolina Wesleyan's baseball squad extended its win streak to eight games with a 9-1 victory over Tufts University in game one of Thursday afternoon's non-conference twinbill at Bauer Field. Unfortunately, the Jumbos scored two runs in the top of the eighth inning of game two to steal a 2-1 win in the nightcap and snap the streak. The Bishops, who knocked off Montclair State earlier in the week by a 12-0 score, now stand at 12-11 on the season.

In the opener, Wesleyan scored a pair of runs in each of the first three innings to forge a 6-0 lead. Zollie Woodlief ripped a two-run double in the first followed by a Luke Williford two-run triple in the second, while Justin Tuck blasted a two-run homer in the third.

Tufts got on the board in the fourth on an RBI-single by Ben Walkley, but NCWC got it back in their half of the frame when Justin Batts singled home Williford. Up 7-1, the Bishops added two more scores in the fifth to secure the final margin of victory.

Diener (1-2) went six complete, giving up just one run on on six hits while striking out four. Freshman Kaleb Wessell then tossed a scoreless seventh to close out the game. Derek Miller suffered the complete game loss for the Jumbos.

The nightcap proved to be a pitcher's dual between starting pitchers Jonathan Shearon and Mike Stefaniak.  NCWC took a 1-0 lead in the fifth on an RBI-double by Zach Alexander that plated Pat Laffin. 

Just five outs away from the shutout, however, Shearon issued a walk to Tufts' Dave Katzman, who was plated by a David Leresche double to left-center.  Leresche later scored the eventual game-winning run on a two-out single to right field by Corey Pontes to give the Jumbos (2-5) their first lead of the day.

Stefaniak took the 2-1 advantage into the bottom of ninth, and after Williford led off the inning with a double, he got out of the jam with a groundout, pop-up, and strikeout to end the game. The senior righty went nine complete and allowed one run on four hits while striking out five and walking none.

Shearon (1-4) took the tough loss, giving up two runs on six hits over 7.2 innings.

The Battling Bishops had previously extended their win streak to seven by downing MSU on Tuesday. Four Wesleyan pitchers combined for the four-hit shutout, led by sophomore starter Max Knowles who moved to 4-0 on the season.

The Bishop offense ripped 13 hits as a team and benefited from five MSU fielding errors. Joel Creef, Batts, Woodlief, and Alexander all had two hits apiece.

Wesleyan returns to USA South action this weekend when the Bishops travel to Methodist University for a two-game set with the Monarchs. First pitch is slated for 1:00 p.m. on Saturday and 2:00 p.m. on Sunday in Fayetteville.
 

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