LAURINBURG —The St. Andrews Knights baseball team dropped the first contest of a three-game series against the Bluefield Rams on Friday afternoon at Clark Field by a score of 6-1. St. Andrews falls to 11-8 (4-5 in conference games) on the season with the loss while Bluefield improves to 10-9 (5-5 against conference opponents) with their fourth straight victory.
Bluefield got four of their runs in the top of the fourth and the other two in the top of the sixth. The Knights got their lone run in the bottom of the eighth. The Rams had nine hits to seven for St. Andrews, who committed two errors while Bluefield had none.
Garrett Wolff was the only St. Andrews batter to have an RBI on Friday, going 1-4 on the afternoon. No Knights batter had more than one hit in the game.
Joe Gaither started the game for Bluefield and pitched 7.2 innings before Noah Burtner came in for the final 1.1 innings of work. Noah Sorrells took the loss as the St. Andrews starter.
The two teams will have a doubleheader on Saturday afternoon to wrap up the series. The first game will start at noon while the second contest will begin at 3 p.m.
Softball shutout in both games against Johnson
The Knights dropped both games of a home doubleheader against Johnson on Friday, losing the first contest 9-0 and the second contest 8-0. St. Andrews falls to 3-21 (0-12 against conference opponents) on the season with their eighth straight loss while the Royals improve to 11-4 (6-0 in conference games) with their fifth consecutive victory.
In the first game (seven innings), Johnson got one run apiece in the second and fourth innings to take the lead. They would then add five runs in the top of the sixth and two more in the seventh. The Royals registered nine hits in the game while the Knights had zero.
Hayden Newkirk and Ella Campbell each drew one walk for St. Andrews. Valentina Jara had three strikeouts over her 5.1 innings of work on the mound.
In the second game (six innings), Johnson got two runs in the top of the first to take the lead. They would then add three runs in the top of the third, one in the fourth and two more in the sixth. The Royals outhit the Knights 8-2 while St. Andrews committed five errors in the contest.
Olivia Plybon and Taylor Maynard each went 1-2 from the plate. Jara drew the lone walk of the game for the Knights.
Meghan Fritz pitched all six innings of the game for St. Andrews. Fritz had six strikeouts.
The Knights will be back in action next Saturday for a road doubleheader against Columbia International University (CIU). The games are scheduled to start at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
Beach volleyball loses to Ave Maria
The Knights dropped a matchup with Ave Maria University by a score of 4-1 on Friday. St. Andrews won the first flight in three sets but couldn’t muster anything else after that. No statistics were available from the matchup as of this writing.
St. Andrews also faced St. Thomas University on Friday afternoon. The result of that matchup was not available at the time of this writing.
The Knights’ season record with the loss to Ave Maria is 8-5 (still 2-0 in conference games). St. Andrews will remain in Ave Maria, Florida for a 10 a.m. matchup with Florida Memorial on Saturday.