SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Wofford baseball team (11-6) defeated the College of Charleston in a 13-9 comeback win on Wednesday evening at Russell C. King Field. After the Terriers built an early inning lead, the Cougars would tie the game at 9-9 in the sixth inning. Wofford rallied to score four runs in the seventh inning to take home the win.
Austin Laughlin made his first career start and pitched for 2.2 innings, giving up three hits and five runs while striking out two batters. Freshmen
Cole Draper and
PJ Fitzpatrick followed in relief to pitch for one inning each.
Champ Davis (1-0) would come in for 3.1 innings, giving up three hits and one run.
Branton Little would close out the win for the Terriers, not allowing a hit in one inning with one strikeout.
Niko Brini led the Terriers at the plate with three runs and three hits with one RBI.
Andrew Mannelly followed with two runs and one hit with three RBI. The Terriers finished with 13 runs on 12 hits.
The Terriers started off strong in early innings. With the bases loaded in the bottom of the first,
Cade Collins scored as the Cougars turned a double play.
Andrew Mannelly reached on an error that scored
Niko Brini to lead 2-0. With two outs on the board and the bases loaded again, a fielding error gave the Terriers a 3-0 lead at the end of the frame.
Austin Laughlin and the Terriers' defense would make it a 1-2-3 second inning for the Cougars. In the bottom of the inning, Brini had a solo home run to center field to take a 4-0 lead.
Ben Timblin was the next Terrier to bring in a run, hitting an RBI triple to right field for the 5-0 lead. The Cougars would change pitchers, but an
Andrew Mannelly double and a flyout to right field by Hunter Herdon would bring it to a 7-0 ballgame.
Despite being down, the Cougars didn't let up in the third inning. With two outs on the board and bases loaded, a walk brought in a run for a 7-1 score. Moments after, the Cougars' Alex LaCoste hit a grand slam to center field to cut Wofford's lead to 7-5. The Cougars would add one more run in the fourth inning for a 7-6 game, but the Terriers would respond with two runs in the bottom of the fourth to make it 9-6. The Cougars once again pushed back on Wofford in the fifth. The Cougars' Braeden Smith hit a two-run homer to left field to cut the Terriers' lead to one run at 9-8. The College of Charleston tied the game at 9-9 with a run in the top of the sixth.
Champ Davis left the Cougars hitless in the seventh to give the Terriers the chance to break the tie. A Herndon single and a Layman double gave Wofford's offense confidence to score. Freshman
Tommy Kirwan, pinch hitting for
Zach Porter, would single to left field bringing in Herndon and Layman to reclaim an 11-9 lead. Collins would double to the same spot to make it 12-9 with two outs on the board.
Logan Tribble had a double that drove in two runs to make it a 13-9 lead to end the seventh. Little retired the top of the ninth in order to secure the win.
Quick Hits:
The Terriers will host Princeton for a weekend series starting on Friday, March 13, at 5:30 p.m., streaming on ESPN +.
Â
