BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The Birmingham-Southern baseball team won via mercy rule after seven innings in game one of the SAA Tournament opening round series vs. Oglethorpe University on Friday. 

The first inning was scoreless and in the bottom of the second inning, the Panthers got things started. An RBI single from Luke DePiero gave BSC a 1-0 lead and later in the inning, Wes Diamantis hit an opposite field homer to stretch the lead to three.

Both teams failed to add any runs in the third inning, but this would be the final scoreless inning for the Panthers. In the bottom of the fourth, Andrew Dutton singled to center field to bring in two more runs for the Panthers. Cam McNearney then singled to right field in the next at-bat to score Dutton and give BSC a 6-0 lead. In the next inning, Noah Best led off and crushed a home run to left field to extend the lead. The Panthers then got the bases loaded and scored after Wes Diamantis was hit by a pitch. Will Lantis then knocked in another run in the following at-bat. Andrew Dutton got the inning's final RBI with a sac fly to give BSC a 10-0 lead heading into the sixth.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Jakob Zito's sac fly scored another run for the Panthers to give them an 11-0 lead. BSC then held the Stormy Petrels scoreless for the seventh inning in a row to take an 11-0 win in game one of the best-of-three series. 

Joey White was excellent on the mound for the Panthers with six innings pitched, five hits, and no runs given up. Ricky Harrison came in to hold the Stormy Petrels scoreless in the seventh and solidify the shutout.  

Records
#1 Birmingham-Southern 32-9, #8 Oglethorpe 7-34

Up next
The Panthers will play game two at 1 p.m. and game three (if necessary) at 4 p.m. against Oglethorpe University on Saturday, Apr. 29 at Striplin Field.