GREENSBORO, N.C. – It was a crazy contest between the Guilford College baseball team and Eastern Connecticut State University on Tuesday afternoon, one that featured 42 players, including 15 pitchers, 42 hits, and 25 runs, but ultimately the Quakers fell, 14-11, at McBane Field.

With the defeat, GC falls to 6-11 while the Warriors pick up their second win, improving to 2-5.

Jackson Marcellus (Chapel Hill, N.C.) got the mid-week start for Guilford and only lasted 1.1 innings after allowing five runs, all earned, on six hits and two hit batsmen to fall to 1-2. Justin Marks allowed one run on four hits over 4.0 innings but did not qualify for the win, instead it was Nolan Lincoln who threw a scoreless inning with two K's who got the victory and improve to 1-0. Chris Torres allowed a hit, but locked down his second save.

A quartet of Quakers had three hits in the game. Michael Sumner (Mooresville, N.C) and Grayson Tudor (Reidsville, N.C.) were two, scoring twice and three times respectively. Isaiah Hairston (High Point, N.C.) did as well, including one double, driving in three. Aaron Williams (Mocksville, N.C.) also had three knocks, two of them doubles. Colin McGuire (Wilkesboro, N.C.) had two hits, including a two-bagger, scoring twice off the bench. Lucas Malave, Ian Moser, and Jason Claiborn, all went deep for the guests with Malave driving in four across four hits and Claiborn going 3-for-5 with three runs scored and two RBIs.

ECSU needed just three batters to get on the board, with Zach Donahue and Joe Cofrancesco singling and Alejandro Soriano doubling in a run. A Malave single made it 2-0, but it was the second inning when things got out of hand for GC. Preston Irby doubled and Claiborn got hit by a pitch before Donahue bunted his was aboard. Two runs scored on a weird play where the ball did not leave the infield and no errors occurred on a Cofrancesco ground out. A Soriano sacrifice fly then Malave hit his first homer of the year, a two-run shot, making the score 7-0 after two innings.

Moser's first home run of the season made it 8-0 in the third before Guilford got on the board in the bottom half. Tudor bunted his way aboard, went first-to-third on a Sumner single, and scored on a Hairston single.

The guests scored two more on run-scoring singles by Malave and Ray Leonzi before GC pitching finally kept the guests off the board in the fifth and sixth innings.

Down ten after a Donahue RBI-single in the top of the seventh, Guilford began slowly putting some reserves in, and the offense came to life. A Tudor single, McGuire double in a pinch-hit chance, and Sumner hit by pitch loaded the bases. Hairston cleared the bags with a double getting the deficit back to single-digits.

After the Warriors got three in the top of the eighth on Claiborn's first home run of the season, a two-run shot, and a Mason Balmer run-scoring single, the Quakers made things really interesting in the home half. Cameron Godbee (Pooler, Ga.) reached on an error and Tudor singled into center but the ball skipped under the glove of the centerfielder Leonzi, for the two-run little-league home run. McGuire followed with a single and Skyler Dark (Pleasant Garden, N.C.) did the same of the infield variety but once again, the Warriors committed a defensive gaff leading to a Guilford run. GC got individual add-on runs on a Sumner single, a Williams double, a Chase Wade (Archdale, N.C.) groundout, and a Godbee two-bagger, as it was suddenly a three-run game.

Unfortunately, that is as close as GC would get as Torres locked it down for ECSU in the ninth, with a 14-11 win.

Things do not get any easier for Guilford in their next game, although they will be able to enjoy a few days off in between. The Quakers will host no. 1 nationally ranked Shenandoah on Saturday, March 16^th for a twin bill. Game one starts at noon.  

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