MACON, Ga. -- One day after erasing a big lead to get an upset win, the Miles baseball team coughed up two leads that cost it a chance to advance in the winner's bracket of the 2026 SIAC Baseball Championship.
The No. 7 seed Golden Bears fell to No. 3 seed Edward Waters 8-7 on Friday at Luther Williams Field, pushing it into an elimination game on Saturday at 11 a.m. against No. 5 seed Morehouse. But for most of the game, it appeared that Miles (21-24) would put earn another upset win over the Tigers (31-19) after downing the now-eliminated No. 2 seed Albany State.
The Golden Bears scored the first five runs of the game. In the first inning,
Michael Smith walked, stole second, moved over to third with two outs and scored on a wild pitch for a 1-0 lead. The offensive explosion came in the second when Miles scored four times.
Elyjah Anderson singled and
Trey Walker followed with a double. Consecutive walks to
Antwan Jackson and
Myles Wessels plated Anderson before an infield single by Smith brought home Walker. A sac fly by
Landon Whitehead scored Jackson and Wessels came around as EWU threw the ball away to put Miles on top 5-0 in the second.
But the Tigers erased the entire deficit by the fourth inning when they scored four times. The big knock was a two-run single by Dannon Smith that tied the game at 5. Still, the Golden Bears were not done putting runs on the board. In the seventh,
Gregory Willis continued his strong tournament run with a two-out, two run single that gave him seven RBI on two games, and scored Whitehead and
Ajani Lyons -Â who had doubled - for a 7-5 Miles lead.Â
Edward Waters, though, continued to rally. A single run in the bottom of the seventh tightened the score and head coach Milton Barney went to
Darryl Johnson (5-4) to try and shut the door in the eighth. Unfortunately, the Tigers started the inning with three straight singles to tie the game and took the lead on a sacrifice fly by Angelo Prieto to grab their first lead of the game.
Miles had a chance in the ninth. Wessels walked to start the inning but was thrown out trying to steal second, one of three runners nabbed on the base paths. A two out single by
Malachi Jeffries went for naught at
Zakry Licastro struck out to end the game.
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