BASEBALL

The 10th-ranked Middle Georgia State Knights, seeded second in the tourney, ran away with a 11-2 win over the 4th-seeded HU baseball team to eliminate the Foresters from the 20-19 NAIA National Championship Opening Round.

It’s Huntington’s second loss in the Macon bracket having been on the wrong end of a 7-5 decision again British Columbia yesterday.

The Knights struck early and often by posting a pair of runs in three straight frames to skirt in front 6-0 after four innings of play. Things seemed to fall into place for MGS as they collected six hits during the three-inning scoring spree in addition to taking advantage of a walk, hit batsman, error and balk to build up a hefty lead.

The game was never really in question as the tournament hosts would go on to outscore HU 5-2 over the final five frames to ride out the W.

The Foresters scored both their runs on sacrifice flies by Adam Roser and Andrew Natividad in the sixth and eighth frame respectively for what was otherwise a quiet afternoon offensively for Frame’s crew. MGS pitcher Jason Gifford went the distance to stifle HU at the plate by allowing only five hits while fanning 11 batters in the nine-inning affair.

Roser finished with two hits as did Satchell Wilson while Donovan Clark logged Huntington’s only other base poke.

Alex McCutcheon (9-3) took the loss for HU. He tossed the first six frames where he gave up six hits, six runs and two walks while striking out five.

With this loss, the Foresters wrap up the year with an overall record of 26-16.