Back-to-back doubles saw David Hickey drive in Gavin Williams with the winning run, and TBC Eagles Baseball fended off the comeback effort to defeat the Lions of NCCAA South Region Paine College in Game 1 of Saturday's double-header. Paine, though, used two crooked numbers to build a lead in Game 2 and earn a split with a 9-1 final score.

Game 1: Eagles 5, Paine 4

With one out and the bases empty in the bottom of the seventh, Williams came within two feet of a walk-off home run when he laced a 1-0 fastball off the top of the left-center field wall. The double put Williams at second base and set up Hickey with the final blow.

Hickey drove the 1-1 pitch to nearly the same spot, and Williams did not hesitate. Williams dove in ahead of the throw to the plate with the game-winning run.

[Gavin Williams beats the throw to score the game-winning run.]

For Williams, his double was his third hit of the game and the run was his second; Hickey scored a run earlier to help the Eagles build a lead.

The final tally made a winner out of freshman Drew Billings, who took over on the mound with two outs in the sixth. Billings retired all four batters he faced, ending a three-run sixth-inning rally from Paine with a foul popup before striking out two of the three men he faced in the seventh to set the stage for Williams and Hickey.

[David Hickey drove in the winning run vs. Paine.]

TBC took a quick 2-0 lead in the first on a two-out two-run bloop single from Jordan Fernandez, which drove in both Williams (single) and Hickey (walk).

Graham Gorman homered to the opposite field to lead off the third inning, and the Eagles led 3-0.

[Graham Gorman celebrates his first college home run.]

Paine scored one in the fourth then rallied for three in the sixth on a bases-loaded walk and two ground balls. Billings then entered and stopped the damage to earn his first collegiate win. Starter Darren Goeke, Jr. pitched 5 innings, allowing 2 earned runs on 5 hits while walking 1 and striking out 7.

[Drew Billings got his first college win on Saturday.]

Game 2: Paine 9, Eagles 1

Williams hit his first college home run in the bottom of the third -- an opposite field shot -- to make the score 2-1 Paine, but that was all the scoring the Eagles would do.

Paine had a pair of three-run innings (fourth, seventh) to put the game away. TBC Freshman Elijah Syrkus, however, pitched 2.1 solid innings in relief in his college debut, allowing 1 earned run on 4 hits, 1 walk, and 2 strikeouts. Paine's Emmanuel Martinez pitched five remarkable innings of one-run ball to earn the win.

Ryan Onkst was 2 for 4, and Hickey drew 3 walks and had a base hit. Gorman, Nate Nogueras, and Drew Gifford also hit safely for the Eagles.

Next Up:

The Eagles will host NAIA Thomas University for a Tuesday afternoon double-header on February 6 with a 4:00 p.m. EST first pitch. Two twin bills at home follow vs. NAIA Florida National University beginning at 3:00 p.m. on Friday and 12:00 noon on Saturday, February 9 and 10. Atlantis University and New College of Florida come to Trinity Ballyard for three-game series on each of the following two weekends.