Box Score After giving up four runs on three errors in the first pair of innings, Maryville College rallied behind key relief pitching by Zach Messinger and Zach McGee to defeat Piedmont College 7-4 on Sunday afternoon on MC's Scotland Yard.
Piedmont (8-4, 1-2 USA South) plated a pair of runs in their first at-bat with an RBI single by Griffin Olson and an RBI double by Andrew Burden off Scots starter Jeremy Haggerty.
Maryville pushed across an unearned run in their first inning when the Lion first baseman misplayed a throw sending Andrew Henry home.
A failed pick-off attempt and a throwing error gave Piedmont a pair of unearned runs in the second giving the Lions a 4-1 advantage after two innings.
Scots freshman right-hander Zach Messinger promptly entered and shut down the Piedmont offense with 5.1 innings of one-hit pitching.
While Messinger tamed the Lions, MC's bats came alive.
McKenzie Jackson blasted a homerun to left-center field making the score 4-2 in the third inning.
In the fourth, first baseman Drew Johnson lifted a sacrifice fly to centerfield to score Johnny Carpenter making the score 4-3.
The Scots took the lead in the fifth when Bryce Redaja blasted his fourth dinger of the season over the right field wall recording his 12th RBI of the season and giving MC the advantage 5-4.
MC left-hander Zach McGee entered in the sixth when Piedmont was threatening and promptly struck out a pair of lefties. He finished with 1.1 innings of work allowing no hits and striking out three.
In the seventh Maryville tacked on a pair of insurance runs when infielder Logan Hayes connected for a two-run homerun over the left-center field bleachers.
Maryville's Joe Jones earned his second save of the season with 1.1 innings of no-hit pitching while striking out a pair of Lions.
The Scots' eight-hit attack was paced by catcher Evan Ezell (2-for-4) with Hayes and Redaja each recording a pair of key RBI.
MC (5-6, 2-1 USA South) will now prepare to challenge Emory & Henry College on Wednesday at 3:00 on Scotland Yard for a key non-conference, regional match up. Maryville's next USA South three-game series challenge will be next Friday at Lookout Mountain, Georgia against Covenant College.
