GREENSBORO, N.C. – The GSO runs through Guilford, as the right arms of
John Yarnovich (Summerfield, N.C.),
Reilan Vickery (Greensboro, N.C.),
Hayden Sekanick (Tampa, Fla.),
Braden Wilkie (Cornelius, N.C.), and
Tanner Royals (High Point, N.C.) shutdown the bats of Greensboro College (21-15, 13-5 USA South) to propel the Guilford College baseball team (19-18, 6-12 ODAC) to a 10-1 rivalry victory at Ted Leonard Park on Wednesday evening.
It was a bullpen day for each side with Yarnovich tossing just 2.0 innings allowing a run on four hits against two K's in his first collegiate start for the Quakers. Greensboro went an arm an inning starting with Nolan Holley, who navigated a hit and a walk with a strikeout in a scoreless frame.
Instead, it ended up being the second arms for each side who factored into the pitching decision. Vickery improved to 4-0 with 3.0 scoreless innings allowing a hit, a walk, and a hit batsman for the Quakers. Meanwhile, Matthew Nelson took the defeat after allowing two runs on four hits in the second inning for the Pride.
Ryne Rodrigues (Summerfield, N.C.) simply continues to crush baseballs for the guests, becoming the 14
th Quaker ever to hit double-digit home runs in a single season, bashing a three-run shot in a 1-3 with a walk.
Trevor Myers (Eastampton, N.J.) also went deep, adding a double and a walk, scoring twice and driving in three.
Connor Griffin (Fort Mill, S.C.),
Gavin Fleming (Gibsonville, N.C.), and
Rylan Smith (Archdale, N.C.) had a couple hits apiece, with Griffin and Smith scoring once and Fleming scoring twice.
Aidan McCandless (Burlington, N.C.) ripped his first extra-base hit of the year, a double, in a 1-3 with an HBP, scoring once and driving in one.
Mustering just seven baserunners against Quaker pitching, Greensboro had just five hits in the game. Trevor Testerman accounted for three of the trips on base with a couple singles and an HBP, swiping three bases. Austen Townsend and DeAndre Sellars got hits and Chase McInerney walked but the Pride run production came on an Evan Sykes solo home run.
Greensboro would open the scoring on this day, as Sykes got ahold of Yarnovich's ninth pitch of the afternoon, driving one just to the right of the 390 marker in center field for his ninth home run of the spring, granting the hosts the lead in the first, but that was all they would get. Testerman singled and stole the second but a K and a pop out ended the inning.
The Quakers swung back in the second, claiming a lead they never gave back, with Myers and McCandless quickly tying things up, using the opposite lines with consecutive doubles. A wild pitch and a rollover by
Chris Shoemaker (Winston-Salem, N.C.) brought home the run, grabbing a 2-1 lead but they would really open things up in the fourth.
Against Carter Catlett, Griffin led off with his second single of the game, followed by a
Trae Pitts (Land-O'Lakes, Fla.) walk and Rodrigues took advantage of the chance, turning on a 3-2 offering and crushing it down the line and over the leftfield wall for a three-run shot, his fifth over the last six games and the 10
th of his season. The Quakers kept the line moving though, with a
Skyler Dark (Pleasant Garden, N.C.) walk, Smith single, and Fleming bunt hit one what was likely originally intended as a sacrifice. Myers drew the third Guilford walk of the inning, forcing in a run before a wild pitch and a passed ball allowed two more runs to score, as the guests opened up an 8-1 lead.
After a Fleming triple, Myers cranked his sixth homer of the spring to virtually the same spot as Rodrigues' down the leftfield line in the sixth, but all of that did not matter much as the Quakers' youth movement on the bump was bearing fruit. The Pride got a couple of hits off Yarnovich in the second, then single runners in the third, fourth, and fifth against Vickery, with Testerman twice reaching third with steals of second followed by an error one time and a wild pitch another, but nothing came of it. Then into the final-four frames, Guilford's bullpen locked down, with Sekanick throwing a pair of perfect frames followed by single flawless innings each from Wilkie and Royals, to lock up the 10-1 win.
The Quakers head north for a make-or-break doubleheader in Ashland, Virginia battling Randolph-Macon College for an Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) doubleheader. First pitch of game one is set for noon.
#GoQuakes
