Box Score
Kentucky Wesleyan defeated Ohio Valley 5-2 on Wednesday afternoon in Mason, Ohio in the first round of the G-MAC Championship to win a school-record 35th game this season. The Panthers are now (35-15, 20-5 G-MAC) on the year. The 2016 Panthers were tied with the 1988 Panther baseball in wins entering today.
Kentucky Wesleyan struck first, as Andrew Kirkland connected on a two-run homerun over the left field wall to put the Panthers ahead 2-0 in the bottom of the second.
OVU scored one run each in the top of the third and top of the fifth to eventually tie the game up at 2-2.
The game was still tied at two in the bottom of the sixth, and Kentucky Wesleyan had two runners on base with nobody out, but were unable to score any runs.
The score still remained the same until the Panthers finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth.
In the eighth, Troy Paris got ripped a single to left field, followed by Jacob Snodgrass who got on base after an error. Adam Brown then walked to load the bases up.
Andrew Kirkland hit a fly ball to left, which was dropped, and Paris scored the first run of the inning off of the error. After a walk, Snodgrass scored as KWC extended the advantage to 4-2.
Jeremy Cline then hit a sacrifice fly to deep center, which allowed Adam Brown to score the third run of the inning.
Ryan Hundley came in for the save in the ninth inning and took care of business. Hundley now leads the G-MAC in saves with seven this season.
Freshman Mitchell Jones recorded his fourth win on the mound, as he went eight innings deep, striking out three.
Cody Bridges and Troy Paris each collected two hits apiece in the contest. Andrew Kirkland led the Panthers in RBI's with three. Tyler Shewmaker and Jeremy Cline each produced an RBI. Snodgrass scored a team-high two runs.
Kentucky Wesleyan will play the winner of Alderson Broaddus/Cedarville in the second round of the G-MAC Championship on Thursday morning at 9:30 a.m. CT.
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