HATTIESBURG, Miss. — William Carey held off Talladega College 8-7 Tuesday night at Milton Wheeler Field in a back-and-forth baseball game.
Talladega scored first in the second inning when Manuel Martinez doubled into the right-center gap and later scored on Diego Duque’s RBI single. The Tornadoes took a 1-0 lead. William Carey was held scoreless through two innings but responded with a four-run third inning.
In that inning, a hit batter and a balk put two runners in scoring position. DeeJay Booth tied the game with an RBI single, and a throwing error allowed Booth to score the go-ahead run. Jayden Mark added an RBI double, and Weston Wales drove in a run with an RBI single, giving the Crusaders a 4-1 lead.
Talladega battled back in the fourth, capitalizing on a Carey error to score two unearned runs and pull within 4-2. William Carey responded immediately with a run driven in by Hays Carley, restoring a three-run cushion.
The Tornadoes continued to chip away in the fifth inning, scoring three unearned runs without recording a hit, thanks to multiple Crusader errors. The Tornadoes tied the game at 5-5 with RBI opportunities created by Armando Jackson, Manuel Martinez, and Miguel Rubio.
The Crusaders regained control in the bottom of the inning, scoring three runs. Taylor Walters delivered a two-run single, and an RBI hit-by-pitch helped extend the lead to 8-5.
Talladega refused to give up, scoring once in the seventh on another error. In the ninth, Eli Payne singled home Adrian Epps to cut the deficit to one. However, Crusader reliever Jimmie Johnson closed the game, inducing a groundout to strand two runners and secure the win.
William Carey returns to action Friday, April 17, when it travels to Thomasville, Georgia, for an SSAC matchup against Thomas University. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m.
