Demorest, Georgia – The No. 6 Rhodes College Baseball program lost their first matchup of South Regional play on Thursday at Loudermilk Field against Ohio Athletic Conference Champion Marietta College, falling 4-3.
Rhodes falls to 33-12 on the year, while the Pioneers improve to 29-17.
Rhodes got the game going immediately, leading off in the first.
Bill Munson stayed hot with a rip of a single through the left side. Unfortunately the Lynx were held scoreless, and
Adam Putnam stepped to the mound to face the Pioneers.
Putnam quickly worked through a one out single to get the next two outs, as the game quickly transitioned to the second.
Andrew Wallis started the inning off with an infield single, but ultimately the Lynx could not produce.
After Putnam breezed through the bottom half of the third, the Lynx pushed a third run in off a
Ryan Olive' infield single, scoring Munson, who continued his hot streak by crushing a single to center. Putnam pitched perfectly through the third, slickly fielding a leadoff bunt for the first out then chunking his way through the last two-thirds.
The Lynx played small ball to put their second run on the board. Left Fielder
Bennett Notestine led off the top of the fourth for the Lynx with a walk, then sneakily swiped second and third to put himself in prime scoring position as
Marcus Moreland stepped to the plate after
Jackson Lourie worked a tough walk. Moreland got the squeeze call from skipper
Jeff Cleanthes, and pushed a bunt down the first base line to score Notestine.
Putnam worked through just a bit of trouble in the bottom half of the fourth, as Marietta figured out a way to put one run up to make the score 2-1 Lynx. The Lynx went down quickly in the fifth, unable to manufacture any offense. The Pioneers produced three of their own to take a 4-2 lead in the bottom frame, as the Lynx again struggled to get things going in the top of the sixth.
Through the entirety of the sixth, seventh and eighth innings, neither team created any offense, as the score remained 4-2 in favor of Marietta. Unfortunately, after piecing a run together off of a Levi Greenburg monster double to centerfield and a Munson single through the right side, the Lynx were unable capitalize, as the Lynx fell to the Pioneers 4-3.
The Lynx are back in action tomorrow, May 15 at noon against the winner of tonight's matchup between Birmingham-Southern College and Pacific Lutheran.
