Story from Union College Sports Information

BARBOURVILLE, Ky.. - April 28 - Baseball - Union College continued to struggle for consistency as it now heads into the postseason following an Appalachian Athletic Conference doubleheader split with visiting Milligan (Tenn.) College on Saturday. The Bulldogs won the opener 9-7 but dropped the finale 7-3.

With the split, Union's record now stands at 39-12 overall and 11-7 in league play, tying it with UVa-Wise for fourth in the standings. UVa-Wise owns the tie-breaker over Union, so it will be the No. 4 seed in the upcoming conference tournament and Union will be the No. 5 seed. No matter, though, as UVa-Wise (28-13-1 overall, 11-7 AAC) and Union will meet up in the opening round on Wednesday, May 3, at 9 a.m. in Kingsport, Tenn.

Tennessee Wesleyan finished the season a perfect 18-0 in league play and will be the top seed. Montreat (N.C.) and Milligan both finish 12-6 in the AAC, but Montreat has the tie breaker over Milligan and earns the No. 2 seed with Milligan being the third seed. King (Tenn.) is sixth at 10-8, Bluefield is seventh and Bryan eighth.

Union needed to sweep Milligan to finish third, and it appeared it was well on its way to getting it.

Down 7-6 in the eighth inning, Union received a three-run home run from Luis Pimentel (Bani, D.R.) to lift the Bulldogs to the 9-7 decision. Pimentel finished the game finished the game 3-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored to lead the Bulldog attack.

Union lead 2-0 after two innings, but Milligan rallied and took a pair of three-run leads at 5-2 and 6-3. In the sixth, Kevin Ramos (Panama City, Panama) came through with a two-run triple to cut the margin to 6-5, and Josh Ehringer (Somerset, Ky.) belted a solo home run in the seventh to tie the game at 6.

Milligan pushed a run across in the top of the eighth for a 7-6 advantage, but Pimentel's three-run shot put Union ahead for good.

Marty Popham (Louisville, Ky.) picked up the win, improved to 5-1 as he pitched two shutout innings in relief.

In the finale, Union jumped out to the early lead again, but the Bulldog offense was silent from then on as Milligan posted the 7-3 win.

Union pieced together a three-run first inning that was capped off by a Pimentel solo home run, his eighth of the season. However, two errors in the top of second allowed Milligan to tie the game at three. The Buffaloes scored twice more in the third before adding a run in each the fourth and fifth innings for a 7-3 cushion.

Nathan Fritz settled down after a shaky first inning and buzzed through the Union lineup. Union mounted just one serious threat after the first as it loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth, but Trey Wheeler (Hopkinsville, Ky.) grounded out to second to end the frame.

Fritz went the distance to pick up his eighth win of the year as he allowed three runs - two earned on nine hits, one hit batter and no walks with five strikeouts.