St. Andrews baseball splits home doubleheader with Reinhardt

Mar. 11—Editor's note no. 2: Corrected Barfield's number of innings pitched.

Editor's note: Some stats were unavailable for both teams from both games.

LAURINBURG — It was a difference of night and day for the St. Andrews Knights baseball team (8-9, 5-3 Appalachian Athletic Conference) between their two home games Saturday afternoon against the Reinhardt Eagles (12-9, 5-3 AAC).

Great pitching, offense, and defense saw the Knights take a 7-1 win in game one, but a hitting clinic from Reinhardt in game two resulted in an 11-4 seven-inning loss for the Knights.

"It gives this team a lot of confidence to get that first game today," Knights head coach Andy Fox said. "The way we're built, we'll let this game two roll right off of our backs. We're not gonna sit here and dwell on it."

Josiah Barhite started on the bump for the Knights in game one, while Ethan Foley was up first to pitch for Reinhardt.

Fox said Barhite was a key reason the Knights were able to get a win over a challenging team in Reinhardt.

"Barhite did a great job in the first game of keeping (Reinhardt) off-balance," Fox said. "That's a really good baseball team. They've played a really tough schedule, so they may not have as many wins as they would like up until this point. They'll be a top 25 team again before it's all said and done. I was really pleased with our effort in the first game."

In the second game, Tyler Barfield stepped up first on the mound for the Knights, and Andrew Herbert got the start at pitcher for Reinhardt.

Despite the difficult loss in game two, Fox doesn't believe it's on Barfield or his team because of how hot Reinhardt was with the bats.

"(Reinhardt) just came out and hit," Fox said. "I didn't think Tyler Barfield did a bad job at all; they just hit. We didn't, and that's baseball. You play well and sometimes it just doesn't come out for you. We didn't do really anything to seriously hurt ourselves in game two; (Reinhardt) just beat us. So, as a coach, when a team just beats me, I can handle that a lot better than us beating ourselves."

With Reinhardt and St. Andrews both tied at 4-2 in the AAC coming into Saturday, the outcome from the two games won't benefit nor hurt either team in the conference standings.

But, both teams are slated to play a third time Sunday afternoon to break the tie; however, rain is forecasted, which puts the game into jeopardy.

Game one

In the top of the first, Reinhardt's Jacob Profit managed a single and stole second, then third base, but was stranded there, heading into the bottom of the inning.

Both teams exchanged 1-2-3 innings, before a pair of errors in the bottom of the second by Reinhardt allowed the Knights to put up four runs.

Jude Drzemiecki, Caden Santucci — a courtesy runner for Samuel Rosario, Adrian Ojea, and Cesar Morillo all rounded the bases in the inning.

Neither team scored again until the top of the fourth, when Jarrett Burney brought Dawson Johns home from first with an RBI double to center field, putting Reinhardt on the board with a run.

However, Chance Blum put the Knights back up 5-1 in the bottom of the fifth. A sac fly from Drzemiecki allowed Blum to score from third, before Brenton Baker struck out to end the inning with runners on second and third.

The Knights scored the final runs of the game in the bottom of the seventh, thanks to scores from Garrett Hamby and Jake Duffy. With two outs already in the inning, Hamby hit a line drive single to right field, and Josh Benfield drove in Hamby with an RBI double to deep left field. Duffy came in as a pinch runner for Benfield, scoring off a line drive single to left field from Drzemiecki.

Cobey Allison relieved Foley in the middle of the eighth, and Joel Connors did the same for Barhite at the end of the eighth.

Barhite earned the win, allowing one run on three hits in eight innings pitched.

Foley suffered the loss for Reinhardt, giving up seven runs on 10 hits in seven innings pitched.

Game two

The Knights allowed four runs from Reinhardt to begin the game, after Profit, Lance Dockery, Nash Crowell, and Zach Rabe all scored.

Profit was walked to get on first, and a ground ball single from Dockery advanced Profit to second. Another ground ball single, this time from Crowell, loaded the bases up, before Rabe hit a 2-RBI ground ball double to score Profit and Dockery. Crowell was able to get across home plate off a passed ball, and a Johns sac fly to center field scored Rabe.

Reinhardt continued to find more runs in the top of the third, putting up a six-pack in the inning.

Dockery was the first at bat for the Eagles and notched a base hit with a line drive single to left field. Dockery, then, advanced to second off a wild pitch from Barfield, and, after Johns was walked to get on first, a ground ball single from Burney loaded up the bases.

Dylan Lewis collected an RBI with a ground ball single to left field that scored Dockery, before Barfield was relieved by Ryan Cleary.

A Jackson Jarvis single scored Johns but, at the next at bat, the home plate umpire took a pitch to the head, which allowed Burney to score, and he would not return. The game was delayed for nearly half an hour and the game was resumed with only two umpires.

After play continued, Jamel Rookard and Profit were both hit by pitches, bringing Lewis home, and a line drive to deep left field from Dockery scored Jarvis to make the Eagles lead 10-0, before the inning was ended with Crowell being put out.

After another scoreless inning from the Knights, Brenden Bille came in for Cleary at the end of the third and downed the Eagles in a 1-2-3 inning. Bille held Reinhardt scoreless, until he was taken out in place of Ronnie Brandon at the end of the sixth.

Sam Kilgore added another run for Reinhardt in the top of the seventh, and, in the middle of the seventh, Michael Reed relieved Herbert for the Eagles.

Ricardo Gutierrez-Castillo and Drake Davidson were both struck out to begin the second half of the seventh, before Dallas Trevena was walked, and Santucci, along with Duffy, were both bit by pitches to load the bases.

Bryson Bebber was, then, walked, which brought in Trevena to score the Knights' first run of the game. The next Knight at bat, Chris Le, hit a ground ball and reached first off an error by Burney on the throw. The mistake allowed Santucci to score and leave the bases full.

Dom Zinna helped Duffy score with an RBI ground ball single to center field, and Brycen Seymore was walked to bring in Bebber to score.

Reed was brought out of the game and Will Castel closed out the game, striking out Gutierrez-Castillo.

Herbert earned the win for Reinhardt, allowing no runs on five hits in six innings pitched.

Barfield allowed six runs on seven hits in 2.1 innings pitched, taking the loss.