The Spartanburg Methodist College baseball team hasn’t needed any help scoring runs at the Alpine Bank Junior College World Series.
But the Pioneers’ bats got a little boost Friday night at Suplizio Field.
Brooks Robinson scored the go-ahead run in the sixth inning on a wild pitch and Matt O’Rourke forced in another run on a bases-loaded hit by pitch to take a 10-6 victory over Chipola (Fla.) College (39-17) to stave off elimination in front of a crowd of 9,476.
University of South Carolina signee Ryan Wilkins broke out of a 2-for-15 slump at the World Series, going 4 for 5 with four runs scored. Robinson collected three hits to give him 11 in the series, six shy of the record set by the College of Southern Idaho’s Shell Scott in 1984.
“We know we have great offensive ballclub,” Robinson said. “The first game with them (Monday) we struggled on defense, giving them four errors on defense.
“Coming out and only making one error and getting a lot of help from our pitching, if we do that, we’ll have a good chance with our offense.”
The Pioneers (54-14) scored in double digits for the fourth straight game in the national tournament as they roughed up four Indians’ pitchers for 15 hits.
Spartanburg’s victory forces another game against Chipola at 2 p.m. today, with the winner facing 2005 champion New Mexico Junior College (55-7-1) at 6:30 p.m. today for the national title.
The Pioneers won the postgame coin flip and will be the home team today.
After Chipola reliever Tyler Musselwhite’s wild pitch and a hit batter allowed Robinson and O’Rourke to put the Pioneers ahead for good, Jacob Wallace and Keon Graves each drove in runs in the seventh. Travis Botts’ RBI double capped the Pioneers’ scoring in the eighth.
“They out-competed us,” Chipola coach Jeff Johnson said.
“I thought we were really selfish with some of our at-bats. Nobody has kept them under 10 runs here, so that’s going to be a challenge for Drew Parker, to keep them down.”
Spartanburg’s Matt Layman (5-2) entered in relief in the second inning and yielded only two runs on five hits over seven innings to earn the win. After Phillip Brannon allowed a run on a wild pitch in the ninth, Bret Elliott struck out Brian Hobbs on four pitches for the save.
“The first game here I really struggled because I was nervous,” Layman said of six runs in four innings in a victory over Shelton (Ala.) State Community College.
“I felt a lot more comfortable, just hitting my spots and trying to get ground balls.”
The rematch was a polar opposite of the Memorial Day game in which the Indians scored eight times in the top of the first and never trailed in a 14-12 victory.
This time, the Pioneers built a 3-0 lead in the first when Wilkins led off with a single and came home on Allen Caldwell’s double to center.
Phillip Morgan, a University of South Carolina-Upstate recruit, hammered the very next pitch from Chipola starter Daniel Jones 302 feet over the left-field fence for a two-run shot, his 11th of the year. Morgan added an RBI single in the fourth when Spartanburg chased Jones, who lasted only three-plus innings in his fourth start of the season.
Botts’ throwing error in the bottom of the first allowed the Indians to get two runs back.
After Jesus Barroso and Brandon Street walked, Botts bobbled a slow roller hit by Tom Hatcher and threw the ball down the right-field line, allowing Barroso to score from second base.
Graves saved a run on Ryan Chaffee’s RBI grounder, jumping high in the air on a high hopper down the left-field line to prevent a double and keep Hatcher at second.
The lead grew to 4-2 in the second when Wilkins scored again, racing home all the way from first when Hatcher misplayed a carom off the left-field fence on Robinson’s double down the third base line.
Pioneers starter Allen Caldwell, who pitched only 142⁄3 innings during the regular season, lasted through only three batters in the second after he hit Trey Manz with a pitch, issued his third walk to Einar Atencio and Paul Gatchell blooped a RBI single to left to trim the lead to 4-3.
Graves flashed some leather again when Logan Pierce greeted reliever Matt Layman with a hard hit grounder to third. Graves made a diving stab, tagged third with his glove and threw out Atencio at second for a double play.
The Indians tied the game at 4-4 in the third when Hatcher, who doubled, scored on Manz’s sacrifice grounder.
Hatcher tied the game at 5-5 with another double off Layman in the fifth.
Kevin McCoy (4-1) took the loss after allowing two runs in two innings of relief.
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Joe Spencer can be reached via e-mail at jspencer@gjds.com.