Baseball

DANVILLE, Va. - The No. 12 Piedmont College Lions were able to knock off No. 4 Salisbury University, 10-6, on Thursday afternoon in a NCAA Division III South Regional baseball game at Dan Daniel Memorial Park in Danville, Va. The third-seed Lions devoured the top-seed Sea Gulls' bullpen as Piedmont scored five runs in the seventh inning to come-from-behind to win.

Salisbury (39-3) suffered its first loss since April 20 when the Gulls lost 16-15 to University of Mary Washington in the Capital Athletic Conference tournament.

Piedmont entered Thursday's game, already with a loss in the regional, with its backs up against the wall in the double-elimination tournament. Salisbury and Piedmont, both sport 1-1 regional records, and will face elimination games on Friday.

The Sea Gulls will go up against the loser of Thursday night's game between fourth-seed Lynchburg College and fifth-seed Christopher Newport University. Piedmont will go up against second-seed Johns Hopkins University. The No. 5 Blue Jays (35-6) eliminated sixth-seed Randolph-Macon College with a 13-8 win on Thursday afternoon.

The Sea Gulls began the game with a quick run in the top of the first inning, as the maroon and gold were the designated visiting team. The Lions (34-13) struck back with three runs in the bottom half. The two teams continued to trade blows through the early innings as each team scored a run in the second inning before SU plated three runs to take a 5-4 lead after three.

SU starting pitcher Dustin Herbert (9-1) calmed down after a rough two innings to begin the game. The freshman southpaw went six innings before getting chased in the seventh. Herbert surrendered six runs on 11 hits, walked three and struck out two. He suffered his first loss of his collegiate career.

The Sea Gull bullpen couldn't hold back the Lions who rolled up five runs in the decisive seventh inning. Freshman reliever Kyle Judson and sophomore Lucas Hanson gave up four runs combined and only got two outs during the dreaded seventh inning.

Piedmont second baseman Cole Spedale (4-for-4, two runs) delivered the knockout punch with a bases clearing double to center off Hanson and advanced to third on the throw. Spedale then stole home, his 31^st stolen base of the season to give Piedmont its 10^th run of the game. The Lions had seven batters in their starting line-up drive in one run.

Offensively for Salisbury the Gulls received two hits apiece from the bottom half of the line-up. Mark Bostwick (2-for-4, run, RBI), Jordan Crystal (2-for-5, run), Matt O'Keefe (2-for-5, run, two RBI), Will Evans (2-for-3, two runs, RBI) and Brad Baylis (2-for-4, RBI) drove in five of Salisbury's six runs. Every starter for the maroon and gold had a hit against the Lions except for second baseman Randy Boyle. He walked in the first inning and scored a run to continue his streak of 42 consecutive games where he has reached base.

Piedmont pitcher Josh McEachin (2-1) picked up the win as he pitched the sixth and seventh innings.