April 20, 2008

MILLINGTON, Tenn. – Junior right-hander Drew Maddox tossed a career-high six innings in his first career start on the hill and senior Travis Bogue notched his first career save as Millsaps punched its ticket to the SCAC Baseball Tournament next weekend in Danville, Ky., with an 8-6 series-clinching win over Rhodes College on Sunday afternoon.

Millsaps (26-16), which was manhandled in the opening game of the series 14-2 in just seven innings, rebounded to win the second game of the series, 6-5, in wild fashion with its backs against the wall and then took care of business on Sunday in ending the Lynx’s solid season.

Maddox, a late reliever/closer who is leading the team and conference in saves with four, was forced to start the game for Millsaps due to its bullpen being used up and worked nearly three innings longer than head coach Jim Page had expected. The Majors originally planned to get several innings from Maddox, a few from Tait Hendrix and then bring in Bogue down the stretch to close things out but had the luxury of tossing just two pitchers to record the victory.

The Majors scored runs in each of the first three innings to give Maddox a little breathing room, plating a run in the top of the first on a Derrik Boland RBI-single up the middle, three in the second and two more in the third off freshman Will Hawkins’ two-run homer (3) to deep left.

Just as they had the previous two days, Rhodes (27-13) found a way to score in its opening at-bat, using a suicide squeeze bunt from Mason Mosby with two outs to score Richard Hurd from third.

Facing a 6-1 deficit in the bottom of the third, the Lynx began to slowly chip away at the Millsaps lead. Mentally drained from a night ago when they squandered away the game-winning runs in the bottom of the ninth, Rhodes looked shell-shocked early but then began to show why they had been so good all season long.

After two quick groundouts to start the inning, senior Daniel Vanaman singled through the left side a batter later and then freshman Brent Lindsey sent his team-leading fourth home run of the year over the leftfield wall to cut the gap to 6-3. They then shortened the lead to 6-5 in the fifth, using an RBI-triple from Vanaman to score Hurd and then a sac fly from Mosby to score Vanaman.

That’s, however, as close as they would get the rest of the way as Millsaps added a pair of insurance runs in the seventh off a Hendrix RBI-single to center and a Boland sac fly before holding on to win it 8-6 when Rhodes added a single run in its half of the seventh.

Having turned just 26 double plays through the first 41 games, Millsaps picked up two, huge double play balls in the eighth and ninth that killed any kind of a Lynx rally late.

Millsaps’ Maddox moved to 2-2 on the year after giving up eight hits and five runs in a gallant performance, while Bogue mowed down the Lynx in relief for a second-straight afternoon to earn the save. Chris Catalanatto (5-1) was tagged with his first loss of the season after getting chased with one out in the second in addition to giving up six runs.

Vanaman paced the Lynx’ bats on a 4-for-4 afternoon in his final game for Rhodes but it wasn’t enough as Hendrix, Boland and Hawkins each picked up multiple-RBIs and eight different Majors recorded a hit.

Millsaps advances to the SCAC Tournament next weekend in Danville and will likely play Trinity University in its opening game on Friday, April 25. All game times and schedules are TBA and will be released by the SCAC office on Tuesday.