JACKSON, Miss. – An explosive bottom of the third inning for Millsaps College doomed the Southwestern University Pirates baseball team, who lost 17-3 to finish the Millsaps College Classic 1-2.
Pitcher Aaron Clark got the start for the Pirates, delivering two shutout innings with two strikeouts in the first before losing control in the bottom of the third.
Clark opened the inning by hitting Nathan Chilton, then walked the next two Millsaps hitters to load the bases. Jimmy Johnstone capitalized for Millsaps, singling up the middle to scored Chilton for the 1-0 lead; ending Clark's afternoon.
John Sparks stepped in for Clark and walked the first batter he faced, scoring another run. After inducing a fly out to center field, Sparks walked another run in and surrendered a two-RBI double to left field by Mason Little, scoring Fritz Walker III and Johnstone.
Park Petkovsek followed with an RBI-single to center field, scoring Little and Jon Dale Dieckman.
After a wild pitch advanced Petkovsek to second, Caleb Hollis replaced Sparks on the mound and advanced Petkovsek on another wild pitch and walked the next three hitters, loading the bases and scoring one.
Brandt Daughtry replaced Hollis and allowed another run on a wild pitch, then walked two consecutive hitters to score another run.
Blake Grider replaced Daughtry, inducing a sacrifice fly from Avery Brock to score Sam Pitre before getting out of the inning by inducing a Dieckman fly out.
In all, Millsaps College scored 11 runs on three hits to take an 11-0 lead.
Southwestern plated two runs in the top of the fifth, getting a two RBI-double from Hayden Craig down the left-field line to score Landon Durdin and Ryan Baranowski.
Millsaps answered immediately, getting a two-RBI double from Walker to score Johnstone and Pitre.
The Pirates added another run in the sixth, scoring on Durdin's fielder choice with bases loaded to score Lance Kruce, who reached on a leadoff single.
Southwestern University's Preston Allen took over for Grider to start the sixth, quickly striking out his first two hitters. But Millsaps quickly answered with back-to-back singles and a walk to load the bases with another walk to score.
Dieckman followed with a two-RBI single down the right-field line and Dylan McFarland scored a batter later on a wild pitch before Little went down swinging.
The Pirates opened the seventh with a walk before three consecutive outs ended the game.
Southwestern put together six hits with no batter finishing with more than one. Craig was 1-for-3 with two RBIs.
With the loss, the Pirates drop to 4-4 on the season, including 1-2 in away games and 1-1 on neutral site games. The Pirates will host Texas-Dallas on Tuesday, Mar. 3, then welcome Middlebury for a three-game series on Saturday, Mar. 7 and Sunday, Mar. 8 with the doubleheader on Saturday.