Baseball Takes Two of Three from Shelton

Marion, AL. - In a rain soaked four hour game Thursday evening, the MMI Tigers captured game one of the four game series against ACCC North foe Shelton State Community College, 8-7.  The second game was postponed due to poor field conditions and will be made up Monday at 4:00 p.m. on the campus of Shelton State in Tuscaloosa.

Game 1 Saturday - In game one of Saturday's doubleheader the Marion bats came alive as they captured another victory 9-7 against the visiting Buccaneers.

Blaine Milam earned the start for the Tigers and worked 4 1/3 innings, surrendering six hits and four runs.  Shelton State scored first in the first inning but Marion rallied in their at-bat to tie the game 2-2.  Jonah Todd reached on an error to start the inning and was moved to second by Zachary Neumann.  With two outs Carson McGregory walked and Jackson Cofer doubled to score Todd.  Mason Gilliland singled which brought McGregory across the plate.

Milam shut down the Buccaneer bats in the second inning while Marion's stayed active.  Landon Sartain reached on an error and Logan Nix was called safe after bunting Sartain to second.  Neumann took his pitch over left center field fence for a three-run homerun, giving the home squad a 5-2 lead.  Shelton State scored one in the top of the third to cut into the lead, 5-3.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, McGregory hit a solo homerun to right field, bringing the lead back to three.  The Bucs rallied with two runs in the fifth to make it a one-run game.  Sartain answered with another dinger in the bottom half of the fifth inning to give Marion a two run lead.

James Mills took the mound in relief in the sixth inning and got two quick outs before a Shelton State batter doubled to get a runner into scoring position.  Jesse Wheeler relieved Mills and got the third out, keeping the runner stranded. 

Marion added two more runs in the seventh inning as Justin Bisharat singled to start the inning. Sartain bunted Bisharat over and was called safe on the play.  Nix popped up a bunt in the next at-bat but Shelton State misplayed the ball to load the bases for MMI. With a new pitcher for the Bucs, Neumann singled to score Bisharat and Taylor followed with a outfield pop fly to bring in Sartain.

Shelton State added two runs in the eighth inning off freshman hurler Justin Orr who came in relief in the seventh inning.  Sophomore Chad Robinson relieved Orr in the eighth inning as Shelton State tried to start a rally. Robinson got a quick strikeout to end the inning. He also worked a one-two-three inning in the ninth inning to secure the win.

Game 2 - Marion's bats went silent in game two on Saturday as Shelton plated six runs in the first two innings.  They would eventually add three more runs to take the 9-0 victory.