Miles never sent a batter to the plate on Saturday while it had the lead against Stillman. But somehow, the Golden Bears (4-1) managed to sweep their doubleheader, 13-12 and 5-4, against the Tigers at Rickwood Field to complete a 3-0 series whitewash of their former conference mates. Both winning runs scored without the benefit of a hit, which was not a surprise as the Tigers (0-3) committed nine errors, walked 14 hitters, hit six batters and threw four wild pitches.
GAME 1: Miles 13, Stillman 12
Stillman jumped on starter
Will Cantey for seven runs in the second inning. Miles would get three runs in the bottom of the inning without getting a hit, then added two more in the third when
Kolby Brannon brought them home with a single the closed the deficit to 7-5. But in the fourth, the Tigers went to work on freshman reliever
Tanner Stinnett and forced him from the game. New freshman reliever
Nick Boines was promptly greeted with a 3-run, opposite field home run by Anthony Rasario and Stillman led 12-5.
But Boines settled down and kept Stillman off the board the next two innings to give Miles a chance. A two-run single by
Xavius Burden was the highlight of a three-run fourth.
Ryan Bargery would single in a run in the fifth while
Jacob Bisharat (hit by pitch) and
Alex Bentley (walk) got RBI without swinging the bat. In the sixth,
Lavontae LaCount, who had entered as a pinch-runner and scored in the fifth, hit a one-out triple. He would score on
Reeves Brashear's RBI double to deep right to tie the game at 12.
Senior
Dylan Johnson (1-0) came in to pitch the seventh and found himself in a bunch of trouble after loading the bases with no one out. But he induced Rasario to hit a ground ball back to the mound, which turned into a 1-2-3 double play. Tres Wooten would then fly out to right field and the Tigers would not score.
In the bottom of the seventh, Bisharat would reach base for the fifth time - after two walks and two hit by pitches - on a throwing error. He would advance to second when Brody Gibson (0-1) walked Bentley, then scored the winning run when Brannon's ground ball to third was thrown into right field on an attempted force play at second.
Miles finished with just six hits. Burden, Brannon and Bargery each had two RBI.
GAME 2: Miles 5, Stillman 4
The Golden Bears trailed 5-4 when they came to the plate in the seventh against Dillon McCaleb (0-1), who had pitched well over the first six inning but looked to labor as his pitch count went beyond 100 pitches.
With one out, Bisharat (2-for-4) singled on a bouncer that just squeaked between the first and second basemen.
Roderick Ransom (2-for3) followed with a single to center. Bisharat raced towards third and beat the throw, which skipped into the stands, allowing him to score the tying run and Ransom to advance to third. Two pitches later, on McCaleb's 117th offering, the ball bounced to the backstop, allowing Ransom to score the game-winner.
The end result made a winner out of
Jacob Schuster, who allowed seven hits and three earned runs during the complete game while striking out four. He gave up two runs in the second but Miles would tie the score in the fourth on run-scoring hits from LaCount and
Cody Hamilton. Stillman would get those runs back in the fifth but LaCount (2-for-3, 2 RBI) would drive in another run in the sixth to cut the deficit in half.
UP NEXT: The Golden Bears will play their first true road contest on Tuesday when they travel to face Shorter. First pitch is at 2 p.m.
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