SAU baseball splits doubleheader, wins series against CIU

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The St. Andrews Knights baseball team split a Saturday doubleheader against the CIU Rams at Miller Field, which helped them win the three-game series after a 7-4 victory on Thursday.

St. Andrews (18-12, 7-9 Appalachian Athletic Conference) won 8-5 in Game One, while CIU (11-24, 6-12 AAC) earned a 4-2 seven-inning win in the nightcap.

The Knights host a nonconference game next against Carolina University on Tuesday at 3 p.m.

Game One

St. Andrews scored the game’s first run in the first inning and held a 1-0 lead up until the fourth when CIU put up four runs; the Knights responded with a five-run fifth, with another run in the sixth, before each team traded runs in the ninth.

Cesar Morillo had three runs, with one being a home run, two hits and two RBIs for St. Andrews; Garrett Wolff had two runs and two hits with one double; Garrett Hamby had one run, three hits and one RBI; Chance Blum had one run on two hits, including a double, with two RBIs; Jude Drzemiecki had one run and one double and Samuel Rosario had two hits with two RBIs.

Noah Sorrells (5-2) pitched all nine innings and earned the win.

CIU’s Shane Hammonds scored two runs on two hits with two RBIs; Kai Smith scored one run on one hit; Graham Peeler and Scott McDonough each scored one run; Emmanuel Maldonado had two hits with one double and one RBI and Collin Greer had one RBI.

JT Stanley (1-3) pitched 4 2/3 innings, allowing four earned runs on eight hits, including Morillo’s home run, with two strikeouts and a walk to take the loss.

Game Two

After two scoreless innings, the Rams went up 1-0 in the third before the Knights went in front 2-1 in the fifth; CIU scored three runs in the sixth, enough to hold on for the win.

Greer scored one run on two hits with one RBI for the Rams; Hammonds had one run on one hit with one RBI; Smith had one run on one hit; Kameron Dunlap scored one run and McDonough and Tanner Martinez each had one hit with one RBI, with Martinez’s coming on a double.

Deric Hanko (2-2) was the winning pitcher, allowing two runs on four hits with five strikeouts and three walks across six innings; Collin Otte earned his third save of the season.

Garrett Wolff had a two-run homer in the fifth to score St. Andrews’ only runs of the contest; Blum scored the other run.

Josh Hill (3-2) threw 5 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on four hits with four strikeouts to suffer the loss.