HARTSVILLE, S.C. - The Coker University baseball team won their South Atlantic Conference game against Tusculum University on Friday night (Mar. 25) in dramatic fashion, as they defeated the Pioneers 10-9 in 10 innings.
The Pioneers took an early lead, as they pushed across two runs in the first and one in the second to make the score 3-0. The Cobras clawed back in the bottom of the second inning behind a Jackson Williams RBI double and a Tripp Kimmel RBI single to trim the deficit to 3-2. The Cobras exploded for four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning. Bryan Castillo led off the inning with a towering drive to left center field that cleared the outfield fence to tie the game at 3-3. Williams would come around to score on a Pioneer error, and Andrew Scudder scored on a Phill Griffor RBI single. Brady Jeffcoat's RBI infield single rounded out the scoring in the inning with the score at 6-3 in favor of the Cobras.
Tusculum would not go quietly however, as they launched a grand slam in the top of the fifth inning to retake the lead 7-6. Coker responded with an Andrew Scudder RBI sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth to score Tripp Kimmel and tie things back up at 7-7. The back-and-forth game continued when Tusculum scored on an RBI single in the top of the sixth before the Cobras answered with sacrifice flies from Brady Jeffcoat and Bryan Castillo to take the lead back at 9-8. That is where the score held until the top of the ninth inning. With the Pioneers down to their final strike, Tusculum launched another home run over the wall to tie the game at 9-9 and send it into extra innings.
Coker held the Pioneers scoreless in the top half of the tenth to set up the dramatics in the bottom of the inning. Brady Jeffcoat came to the plate with two outs and a runner on first in the form of Kody Hanna. Jeffcoat put the ball in play on a grounder towards third base and forced the Pioneer fielder to hurry his motion and throw the ball away down the first baseline. Hanna scampered his way around the bases to score the game-winning run and walk-off the Pioneers 10-9.
Phill Griffor led the Cobras with three hits on the night, while Castillo, Williams, and Kimmel each recorded two base knocks. Castillo and Jeffcoat tallied two runs driven in, and Griffor, Williams, Kimmel, and Scudder all drove in a run of their own. Cooper Thomas earned his first career win on the mound, as he threw three innings while only allowing one hit and one run. Thomas also struck out three Pioneer batters.
The Cobras return to action tomorrow (Mar. 26) when they host Tusculum for a doubleheader to wrap up the weekend South Atlantic Conference series. First pitch of game one is scheduled for 12pm, with live video and statistics available at www.cokercobras.com.