GREENVILLE, S.C. – The No. 7 Wofford baseball team earned a 12-4 victory Thursday night at Fluor Field as
Kenny Michaels shoved in a complete game gem over No. 3 The Citadel. Wofford improves to 33-25 as the Terriers advance in the Southern Conference Championship presented by Holston Gases. The Bulldogs drop to 30-25.
Kenny Michaels (5-3) secured the win as he pitched a complete game, the first by a Terrier since Matthew Marchal in 2023 against UNCG, also in the SoCon Tournament. Over his 9.0 innings, Michaels struck out five while allowing four runs on seven hits and two walks.
Andrew Stanely (5-3) took the loss for The Citadel as the starter. He tossed 3.1 innings with four runs (three earned) on four hits and three walks.
The Terriers posted a 16-7 hits advantage, led by
Tanner Hardin and
Cade Collins with three each. The three base knocks are a career high for Collins, who added four RBI for his first-career multi-RBI effort. Hardin tallied one RBI. The quartet of
Niko Brini,
Tyler Bak,
Andrew Mannelly, and
Lucas Manning all collected two hits. Brini posted four RBI as Bak, Mannelly, and
Tyler Hare each posted one.
Brini, Hardin, Manning, and Collins all notched doubles. Bak swiped Wofford's lone steal in the contest. With two walks and a hit by pitch, Mannelly reached safely all five times he stepped to the plate.
The Terriers struck first in the top of the first.
Ryan Wynn walked and advanced when a pick-off throw got away. From there he scored when
Tanner Hardin dropped a double into right center, giving Wofford a quick 1-0 lead.
Wofford tacked on one more in the second. A walk and hit by pitch put two on for
Niko Brini, whose single plated one to double to margin to 2-0.
The lead doubled once more in the fourth.
Andrew Mannelly walked, and
Lucas Manning doubled to put two in scoring position.
Cade Collins then smacked his own double to left center that plated both runners for a 4-0 advantage.
The Citadel cracked onto the board in the bottom of the fifth with a trio of runs. A two-run double opened the scoring for the Bulldogs, and a sacrifice squeeze bunt pushed across another. However, the damage was limited when a heads-up throw by
Tyler Hare to Collins at third caught a Bulldog too far off the base to close the inning, but The Citadel was within 4-3.
In the top of the sixth, Wofford got all three of those runs back. A hit batsman and two singles loaded the bases for Brini, who delivered a bases-clearing double to right center. Wofford's lead stood at 7-3.
Four more crossed the plate in the top of the seventh for the Terriers. Hare and Mannelly hit back-to-back RBI singles before Collins brought in two with his single. Wofford led 11-3 at stretch time.
An RBI single by
Tyler Bak in the top of the eighth stretched the margin to nine runs at 12-3.
The Citadel added a solo homer in the bottom of the ninth, but it was all they could scratch across.
Kenny Michaels held firm to polish off the complete game and secure the 12-4 Terrier victory.
Wofford advances to face No. 2 Samford tomorrow afternoon at 12:30 p.m. in a rematch of last season's SoCon Championship Final.
