Box Score The Averett University Cougars used the long ball to prevent a USA South sweep on Sunday. Averett took the series finale 16-8 behind the bats of Kevin Alvarez, Taylor Davis, and Andrew Davies.
Averett claimed an early 3-0 lead in their first plate appearance. A sacrifice fly followed by a two-out, two-run homerun by Kevin Alvarez gave the Cougars an early advantage.
Trailing 3-0, Maryville's Garret Gresham led off with a double and then promptly scored on a Landon Talley sacrifice fly to right field.
The Cougar's catcher Trey Wall put the visitors up 5-1 with a two-run blast just inside the left field foul pole in the second inning.
MC's Travis Scates led off the second with a double and trotted home on a Gresham RBI single up the middle. After two complete innings, Maryville trailed 5-2.
Averett's Alvarez lifted a 3-2 curveball on to Honaker Field for a two-run blast to give the Cougars a 7-2 lead after three innings.
A bases loaded balk and a two-out, two RBI double by Taylor Davis put another crooked number on the scoreboard for the Cougars. Following Alvarez's fifth RBI on a single to left field, Andrew Davies stroked the Cougar's fourth dinger of the day to put Averett up 13-2 in the fourth inning.
Maryville took advantage of a Cody Moore balk to score Travis Scates in the fourth. Going to the fifth inning, Averett led 13-3.
Averett manufactured a pair of runs in the sixth and seventh to extend their lead to 15-3.
The Scots scored a pair of runs in the seventh with key RBIs by Dan Oaklief and Nick Dean making the score 15-5.
An RBI single by MC's Matt Jones and a run scoring triple by Averett's Davies made the score 16-6 before John McDermott laced a two-RBI double in the ninth to finish the scoring at 16-8.
Averett advances to 5-9 on the season and 1-5 in USA South challenges. Cody Moore (2-2) picked up the win with seven innings of eight hit pitching. The right-hander struck out seven Scots on the day.
Mayville (8-4, 3-3 USA South) was paced at the plate by Garrett Gresham and Nick Dean. The duo each has three hits in MC's 14 hit attack. Seth Debity (1-1) suffered the loss for the Scots who had five hurlers scatter 15 Cougar hits.
Maryville will prepare for a mid-week non-conference challenge at Carson-Newman College on Wednesday.
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