Box Score Game 1 | Box Score Game 2

Rocky Mount, NC -- The Piedmont College baseball team took both games of a doubleheader on the road at North Carolina Wesleyan College earlier today to move their season win total to 26 now on the year.  The Lions took a tight 2-1 victory in the afternoon's opener before coming from behind to ride a six-run eighth inning to a 7-4 game two victory to complete the sweep.

Game one featured a pair of solid pitching efforts backed up with timely hitting as Piedmont managed to come out on top with a 2-1 winner.  The Lions took the lead in the fourth inning as Kevin McConnell doubled in teammate Josh Bailey though the home team battled back to force a 1-1 tie on a run in the bottom of the sixth. 

Just before the seventh inning stretch at the Rocky Mount ballpark, the Lions used a pair of back-to-back singles to apply pressure to the NC Wesleyan starter who found himself in a two-on, two-out situation with streaking Kyle Davis up to the plate.  Having already posted a single in the fifth to push his hitting streak to a season and team-high 16 games, Davis posted another base hit that scored teammate Matt Youtsey giving the Lions their second lead of the day at 2-1.

After reliever Ed Cook bridged the eighth inning gap with his 15th scoreless showing in his last 17 appearances, closer Matt Collins came on to take care of the rest posting a two-strikeout scoreless ninth as the Lions held on for a 2-1 victory.  Collins picks up his tenth save of the season, one shy of the national leader in that statistical category.

Sophomore Kevin Caldwell was reliable yet again in game one which turned into an old-fashioned pitchers' paradise as neither team posted a multiple run inning.  Caldwell went seven innings with a pair of K's for the Lions getting the win on the mound pushing his season record to 7-2.

Game two did not go the way of the Lions to start as Piedmont fell behind early allowing three first inning runs to the hosting Battling Bishops who posted the first multiple run inning of the day.  The Lions would grab a run in the top of the third on a sac fly from senior John Duke to cut the lead down to 3-1, but the team remained scoreless for their next four innings at bat to find themselves still trailing by two through seven.

Piedmont then found its rhythm in the top of the eighth as the visiting Lions erupted for six scores off the unraveling Bishop bullpen.  After Curtis Cornett drew a leadoff walk to start the inning, NC Wesleyan retired the next two batters for what seemed to be a harmless inning for the home team.

However, the Lions would then load the bases on two straight walks before a Battling Bishop wild pitch allowed Cornett to score from third cutting the lead down to a single score.  A hit by pitch and a bases loaded walk to red hot Davis would tie up the ballgame at 3-3 prior to a pair of clutch two-RBI singles from Josh Bailey and John Duke that drummed up four more scores before the home team could get out of the disastrous inning.

That six-run inning gave all the room the PC bullpen would need as Josh Strickland collected the comeback win in relief tossing a hitless three and a third for the Lions.  Strickland collects his second win of the year lowering his ERA to 1.92 while Collins grabbed the final two outs of the night, one of which came on his now team-leading 64 strikeouts.

With the pair of wins, the Lions move to 26-13 on the season - one victory shy of the second most in a season during Piedmont's NCAA era. PC will wrap up its three-game series against NC Wesleyan looking for the sweep tomorrow afternoon at 1:00.