Piedmont baseball ends regular season on high note

DEMOREST -- The Piedmont College baseball team wrapped up the 2014 regular season Sunday with a 5-4 win over Maryville College at Loudermilk Field on senior day in Demorest.

Piedmont held a four-run lead before late offense from Maryville threatened to ruin the afternoon for the veterans in Green and Gold, but the home team steadied on the mound to shut the door in the 9th as Jacob Brewster picked up his 17th save of his career, one shy of the all-time program record of 18 set by former All-American Tom Dimitroff.

The Lions tallied single runs in each of the first three innings on Saturday with the first coming on a wild pitch as Will Skidmore turned his leadoff single into a score making it 1-0 after the first. A perfectly laid sacrifice from Austin Brick in the 2nd doubled the margin to 2-0 as Evan Gresham would come sliding in safely on the play.

In the third, it was the first of two doubles from Breck Davidson on the day that scored the third Lion run of the afternoon as the slugging first baseman wraps up his campaign leading the team with his 13 doubles after the pair of two-baggers today. A 3-0 lead and a dominant Chris Goershel on the mound looked to be the end of the Scots' chance to avoid the sweep on Sunday as the junior arm for Piedmont allowed just two hits through the first five innings.

However, it was a leadoff double in the 6th given up by Goershel that allowed the Scots to get back in the game as Zack Blonder's two-base hit allowed him to score from second on a RBI single from Travis Scates. The Scots run in the 6th made it a 3-1 ball game, but the veterans in Demorest had an answer scoring two of their own in the home half of the 6th as Evan Gresham doubled in Breck Davidson to start the scoring.

Piedmont had four doubles on the day with Austin Brick accounting for the fourth. Gresham would later score in the inning to make it a 5-1 game as veteran Patrick Lyons picked up the RBI on one of his final at-bats at Loudermilk Field on Senior Day.

A Maryville sac fly in the 7th cut the Piedmont lead to 5-2 as the Scots tried to climb back in the game with late offense. The run would be the second and final one given up by Chris Goershel as he left in line for the win having given up six hits fanning five over the day.

The Scots' Andrew Mabini made the lead shorter for PC as Maryville continued to rally getting a 2-RBI double from Andrew Mabini to make it a one-run ball game in the 8th. However, after Josh Thomas had worked himself into a bases-loaded, 1-out jam courtesy of a Lions error and hit-by-pitch, the Piedmont pitcher was able to sneak his way out inducing a shallow fly ball to Gresham in right not deep enough to let a runner tag from third and putting two outs up in the inning.

With the situation now focused on the batter facing Thomas, the Piedmont pitcher caught Landon Talley looking at strike three to end the threat in the 8th with the lead still intact for PC. In the 9th, closer Jacob Brewster was called in to face the Maryville side with a 5-4 lead as he retired the first two batters he faced before John McDermott doubled to put the tying run 180 feet away with two outs in the 9th.

McDermott would be stranded though as Brewster induced a pop up to Davidson at first to end the game with a win for PC, as Brewster picked up his 8th save of the season, 17th of his career. Goershel goes to 6-3 with the win on the mound.

The win completes a three-game series sweep for Piedmont over their long-time conference rival Maryville College and wraps up the Lions' regular season at 25-14 overall including a 17-10 mark in USA South play. According to USASouth.net, the Lions will finish 4th in the league standings while Covenant College takes the league's regular season crown and as a result will also earn the league's automatic berth into the NCAA National Tournament.

The Lions wrap up one of their best seasons at Loudermilk Field as well with a 15-4 record at home during the 2014 campaign including three conference series sweeps, one over Greensboro College to start the conference slate and another over then-league leader Huntingdon College just a few weeks later. The five seniors also played their final game at Loudermilk as Billy Mangum, Josh Bailey, Patrick Lyons, Matt Lisk, and Carl Allen finish up their careers as one of just two four year classes to accumulate more than 100 wins over their seasons in the program's NCAA era.