BREVARD, N.C. – The Brevard College baseball team (13-14, 7-6 USAS) concluded its 2021 season on Wednesday afternoon at Gil Coan Field, falling by a final of 8-2 to Piedmont College (21-14, 8-6 USAS) in the final regular-season conference contest of the season.
The defeat wraps up an impressive late-season run by the Tornados, who played their way into playoff contention by winning four-consecutive USA South Conference contests last week to set up the win-and-advance scenario. Wednesday's matchup with Piedmont was the third game of the two teams' season series, rescheduled from April 18.
Peter Fumero hit his first home run as a student-athlete at Brevard College in the bottom of the seventh inning, driving a 1-0 pitch over the left-field wall. Fumero accounted for one of BC's two runs on the day, as Zach Allison drove in Jack Atkinson on an RBI groundout in the bottom of the sixth inning. Freshman outfielder Logan Clark tallied a single and a stolen base, while Jason Jucker added a single.
Sophomore right-hander Nathan Sanders (3-3) was the pitcher of record for the Tornados in the matchup, striking out a pair in three and one-third innings with five earned runs. Bryce Bowers worked 2.2 innings in relief with an earned run and strikeout, while senior Huntley Hacker turned in a scoreless performance in his final outing with Brevard, logging three innings of four-hit, shutout work with a pair of strikeouts.
Sam Carpenter (9-3) hurled seven innings with nine strikeouts for Piedmont, allowing both of Brevard's runs. Carpenter and Sanders matched up once before in 2021, with Sanders edging the Piedmont lefty with an 11-strikeout performance in Brevard's lone win over the Lions this season.
Jack Bartlewski totaled a 4-for-5 performance for Piedmont offensively with a double, while Zach Norman hit a three-run homer down the left-field line. Tyler Sheley added a pair of doubles as the Lions accrued 15 hits in the ballgame.
Both pitchers traded blows through the first three scoreless innings, with neither side able to amount much offense. A Sheley leadoff double in the top of the second was nullified when Sanders picked Sheley off second base with a beautiful move, ending the scoring threat. Clark singled and advanced on a fielding error before stealing third with two outs in the bottom half, but was stranded 90 feet away from home after a Carpenter strikeout.
Piedmont broke through in the top of the fourth after a pair of one-out singles and a wild pitch set runners up at second and third base. Sheley then split the gap in left-center to bring home the baserunners, giving the Lions the 2-0 lead. After a single put runners on first and third, Norman hit a deep three-run shot down the left-field line that extended Piedmont's advantage, 5-0. The Lions tacked on another score on a sac-fly-turned-double-play after a runner left early, giving Carpenter and the Piedmont defense a six-run advantage.
The Lions were able to shut down the Tornados in the next two frames before a sacrifice fly and an RBI double extended the advantage to 8-0. Brevard got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the sixth, as Allison plated Atkinson on an RBI-groundout, followed by Fumero's solo shot in the bottom in the seventh. Hacker kept the Tornados within striking distance with his three-shutout innings, but Piedmont held on to their six-run advantage to claim the victory, 8-2.
Brevard concludes the 2021 campaign with a 13-14 record that included a 7-6 record in USA South Conference play. BC's 7-6 mark in USA South matchups gives the Tornados the program's first winning season in conference action since the 2012 season. Brevard's 13 victories are its most since 2016.
The Tornados, under the direction of Head Coach Mike Victory, Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator Rob Julian, and Volunteer Assistant Coach Steve Hucke, won four-of-six contests at home with Julian at the helm of the program with Victory on paternity leave.
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