GREENSBORO, N.C. – Isaiah Hairston (High Point, N.C.) hit two home runs, one out of the park and one in it, on his way to a five-RBI showing, but it was not enough as the Guilford College baseball team was toppled by Carolina University, 15-9, on Tuesday afternoon at McBane Field. Once leading 6-1, the pitching allowed the game to slip away in the late innings in the defeat.
 
With the win, the Bruins improve to 6-4 on the season while the Quakers drop to 2-5.
 
Jacob Phillips (Browns Summit, N.C.) got the start in Guilford's first mid-week contest of the young season, but did not get out of the fourth inning after allowing three runs, two earned, on four hits and a walk while striking out three. Caden Ross fared even worse for the guests, allowing six runs, all earned, on six hits and three walks against two strikeouts in just 2.1 innings on the bump. Neither starter factored into the decision and instead it was John Luegering who found himself in the right place at the right time to collect the win and improve to 1-0 despite allowing three runs, all earned, in his 1.0 inning of work. Tanner Royals (High Point, N.C.) found himself on the wrong end of things, after allowing four runs in 1.1 innings of work to fall to 0-1.
 
Michael Sumner (Mooresville, N.C.) had a strong afternoon at the plate in front of Hairston, going 2-of-four with a walk and three runs scored. Chase Wade (Archdale, N.C.) collected three hits and an RBI while Ethan George (Burlington, N.C.) reached in all four of his plate appearances, going 3-of-3 with a walk, and two doubles, scoring twice.
 
Carolina's offense had five players score multiple runs and five drive in multiple runs in the contest. Leland Brown led this group with a walk, a double, and a two-run home run, driving in two runs and scoring three more in the game. Alexiel Delgado also scored thrice while driving in a pair for the Bruins.
 
Carolina got on the board with an unearned run in the top of the first. Alejandro Rodriguez drilled one into left-center that popped out of the glove of Devin Tonkins (Greensboro, N.C.) for a two-base error. Two batters later, Bryan Deegan tapped one though the middle, plating Rodriguez, and giving the guests the lead.
 
Guilford responded in the home half. Sumner chopped a one-out single through the left side of the infield to set up Hairston and he did what he does. Hairston got a 1-1 pitch and hit a frozen rope that could not have gotten more than 65 feet off the ground, clearing the right-center field fence, thrusting the hosts in front, 2-1.
 
The Quakers got back to work offensively in the second. George led off by splitting the left-center field gap. A couple of wild pitches allowed him to take the final 180 feet for GC's third run. They were not done yet as Carter Blum (McLeansville, N.C.) and Sumner took two-out free passes to bring up Hairston again. He got ahold of another one, this time it was a mile-high fly ball to left-center. It did not clear the fence, but it did just clear the glove of the leaping left fielder, Delgado, dropping onto the warning track and taking a weird hop off the base of the wall and caroming hard into deep straight-away center field and away from both outfielders. As the ball trickled into no-mans-land, Hairston rounded the bases, for his second home run of the game, this time the hard way, for his fourth round-tripper of the year.
 
After an uneventful third, outside of the conclusion of Ross' outing on the hill, the guests climbed back to tie things in the fourth and fifth. Some two-out magic was on the menu in the first of those frames, Delgado singled and came all the way around to score on a double by Danny Gonzalez, he was subsequently chased in on a single by Elias Nurideen. A hit batsman ended Phillips' day although Reese Baker (Ashland, N.C.) got out of the inning without any further damage. Then in the fifth, the Bruins started hitting the ball hard off Baker. A leadoff triple was followed by a groundout for one run before the guests got traffic again with a Deegan double. Brown then unloaded on the first pitch, drilling it over the left field fence, evening things at six-all.
 
The Quakers would retake the lead on a Wade single in the bottom of the sixth but things fell apart from there. Royals got the first out of the seventh no problem, but then double, walk, single, and hit by pitch forced in the tying run. Guilford made a pitching change to Izaac McGuire (Wilkesboro, N.C.) and it just continued, a two-run single although the runner was thrown out trying to advance to second on a bobble, a balk brought in a run, another hit batter, walk, and an E3 plated a run, and that is how a 7-6 lead turns into an 11-7 deficit.
 
Guilford got two in the home half, but the Bruins responded with four more in the eighth as the bullpens, and eventually the benches began to empty and the score finalized at 15-9.
 
The Quakers will look to get back into the win column on Saturday when they host Brevard College for a doubleheader. First pitch of game one is 12:00 PM.
 
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