Clarksville, Ark.-Maryville College came back from deficits in each game to pull out a three-game sweep over the Eagles in Millington, Tennessee Saturday and Sunday.
Maryville (22-13) took Saturday’s game 10-8 in twelve innings after mounting a seventh inning comeback. Cory Briggs broke the school’s all-time hit record in the ninth inning when he laced a single to center field. Briggs finished the three-game series 5-for-12 and now has 194 career hits, surpassing Robby Finnell’s previous career hit mark of 189.
Ozarks (12-24, 6-8 ASC) dropped game one on Sunday, 3-2, and then let a 7-4 first inning lead slip away in game two’s 9-8 loss.
Ozarks will host East Texas Baptist University (11-24, 2-13 ASC) this weekend for a spot in the playoffs. The Eagles are battling Louisiana College (14-21, 7-8 ASC) for the fourth and final playoff spot.
On Saturday, Ozarks jumped out to a 6-0 lead after three. Ozarks scored two runs in the first thanks to three Maryville errors. Ozarks added four runs in the third, punctuated by a two-run double from Jeremy Hogan. Starter Bobby Osburn cruised through six innings before running into trouble in the seventh. Osburn fanned eight through six and one-third, but gave up six runs in the seventh. The Scots took the lead in the eighth, 7-6, but Chris Driedric got a clutch RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to extend the game into extra innings. Maryville struck first in the tenth with a run, but Jeremy Hogan hit his eighth homer of the season to tie the score at 8-8. The Scots would eventually score twice in the twelfth to secure the game.
Travis Conner (1-5) took the loss. Hogan went 2-for-6 with two RBI. Driedric finished 2-for-6.
Ozarks opened game one Sunday with a run in the first, but manufactured just four hits the rest of the game. Mitchell Powers doubled in Driedric in the first and later took a 2-0 lead in the third when Powers tripled in Tad Turner. Maryville scored twice in the bottom of the third to tie the score at 2-2 and would later get the game-winning run in the fourth on an RBI double.
Briggs (2-4) took the loss in six innings of work. Powers went 2-for-3 with two RBI.
Ozarks blew another lead in game three of the series as it opened the first with a big seven-run inning. The Scots committed four errors in the frame and Ozarks collected three hits. Maryville chipped away at the deficit, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first. Ian Bryan singled in a run in the sixth to extend Ozarks advantage to 8-4. Things quickly turned in favor of Maryville in the bottom half of the frame when the Scots scored five runs, including a bases clearing double, to take the lead for good.
Logan Parsons (1-1) received the loss. Briggs paced Ozarks with a 3-for-4 performance at the plate.
Topics: Athletics