LAURINBURG — The St. Andrews Knights baseball team dropped its series against the Pikeville Bears on Friday and Saturday.
After both teams took one of the first two games, Pikeville (24-12, 16-7 Appalachian Athletic Conference) squeaked out a 7-6 eight-inning win in Saturday’s game three to clinch the series; Pikeville won Friday’s game one 11-0 in seven frames, and St. Andrews (20-14, 8-11 AAC) claimed game two 6-2 on Saturday.
In game three, St. Andrews was up 1-0 following the first inning before a three-run third helped Pikeville take the lead; after the Bears scored another run, St. Andrews put up three in the fourth to tie it at 4-4. The difference came in the next two innings though, when Pikeville’s three runs in the fifth topped St. Andrews’ two in the sixth, ultimately leading the Bears to victory.
Pikeville’s Austin Gurney scored one run on two hits; Riley Paulino and Noah Helton had one run and one hit, with Paulino coming away with an RBI; Cam Revolt had one run, one double and three RBIs; Francis Subero, Connor Moody and Tyler Freas scored one run each and Noah Brooks had two hits with one RBI.
Caleb Morrison earned the win, pitching 2 1/2 innings and allowing two runs on three hits with one strikeout and two walks.
Jude Drzemiecki, Cesar Morillo, Caden Santucci, Garrett Wolff and Adrian Ojea had one run and one hit each for the Knights, with Drzemiecki getting an RBI; Garrett Hamby had a single, a double and an RBI.
Josh Hill allowed five runs on five hits with two strikeouts and three walks across four innings to take the loss.
In Pikeville’s shutout win in game one, two runs were in the second, seven in the third and two in the seventh.
Revolt had three runs, a single, a double and three RBIs for the Bears; Gurney scored two runs on two hits, including a double, with two RBIs; Ian Setzer scored one run on two hits, with a double and three RBIs; Subero scored on a home run with three RBIs; Freas scored one run on a single and a double; Helton and Tyler Maynard had one run and one hit and Samuel Torres had one run.
Paulino pitched a complete game, giving up five hits with six strikeouts and four walks to take the win.
Josiah Barhite was the losing pitcher for St. Andrews, allowing nine earned runs and eight hits with four strikeouts and one walk in three innings.
Game two saw Pikeville lead 1-0 after the first, but St. Andrews went up 4-1 in the third, 5-1 in the fifth and 6-1 in the seventh before a run was scored in the eighth by the Bears.
Morillo had two runs, a hit and an RBI for the Knights; Drzemiecki had one run on two hits with two RBIs; Chance Blum scored one run on two hits; Santucci had a run, a hit and two RBIs and Ojea had one run and one hit.
Noah Sorrells threw seven innings, allowing one unearned run and four hits with seven strikeouts and four walks to get credited with the win; Ryan Cleary earned the save.
Helton scored both of Pikeville’s runs and had a hit; Gurney and Maynard each had an RBI and Subero had two hits.
Kameron Brodeur allowed all six runs, which were earned, nine hits and had five strikeouts and two walks in seven innings, suffering the loss.
St. Andrews visits Voorhees for a nonconference doubleheader on Tuesday. First pitch for game one is at noon.
Beach volleyball team turns out sixth-place finish at Sun Conference Championships
The St. Andrews Knights beach volleyball team traveled to Bradenton, Florida, to compete in the Sun Conference Championships at the UMR Sports Complex on Friday and Saturday.
The Lady Knights played three matches during the two-day tenure, starting with Ave Maria on Friday. They lost the match 3-0 but rebounded later that afternoon against Truett-McConnell, securing a 3-0 victory and keeping themselves alive to take on William Carey University on Saturday.
The Lady Knights were no match for the Crusaders though, dropping the match 3-0 and ending their tournament campaign; they finished the tournament in sixth place.
The Lady Knights’ record currently stands at 13-16. They hit the court again this weekend for the Small College Championships on April 12 and 13 before coming home on April 16 for their last two home matches of the regular season against Sandhills Community College. They finish their season on the road at Gaston College on April 17 with a doubleheader matchup.
Men’s volleyball shuts out Bluefield during final regular-season match
The St. Andrews Knights men’s volleyball team shut out the visiting Bluefield Rams 3-0 Friday night during its final match of the regular season, with set scores of 25-20, 25-21 and 25-17.
Hazem Nabil led the Knights’ offense with 15 of the team’s 42 kills and four digs; Hugo Gonzalez-Gutierrez had eight kills; Deonte Brewer and Khushpreet Sandhu contributed six kills each and career assists record-holder Dakota Hotaling did not disappoint, logging 37 of the team’s 40 assists and five digs during the three sets.
With the win, the Knights finished the regular season with a record of 21-9 and 7-5 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference; Bluefield dropped to 9-11 and 3-9 in AAC play.