MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (March 5, 2016) â€" Hunter Townsend hit a two-run home run in both game one and game two, and Hunter Suggs finished the day off with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth as they helped the Milligan College baseball team to two one-run victories over Montreat College, 5-4 and 8-7, Saturday afternoon at Anglin Baseball Field.
 
Down 6-4 in game two after already scoring twice in the bottom of the seventh, the Buffs faced their final out with Suggs standing on second and Townsend at the dish. Suggs reached earlier in the inning on a one-out, two RBI double that brought in Andrew Copas and Nelson Schneider, who reached on back-to-back hits to get the inning started. Townsend responded to the pressure situation by launching his second home run of the day just fair down the left field line to send the game into extra innings.
 
Then, after Montreat bounced back with a two-out run in the top half of the eighth, Milligan responded to load the bases with only one out. A walk by Braden Jones brought in the tying run, Justin Pearson, before Suggs' ball to center field was deep enough to score Jake Weaver for the win.
 
Milligan led from start to finish in game one as Suggs led off with a base hit over the shortstop, stole second, advanced to third on a wild throw by the catcher, and then scored on Bryan Soto's RBI groundout.
 
The big blow of game one for the Buffs came in the third inning when Soto reached with a one-out single to short, and was then brought in by Townsend's two run homer to deep right to make the score 3-1. A walk by Soto in the fifth inning led to another run as a knock by Shane Salley brought in the pinch runner, Weaver, to make it 4-1.
 
Townsend and Suggs combined with Soto and Salley at the top of the Milligan batting order to go 6-for-11 with five RBI's. The group then combined to go for six hits again in game two, and added six RBI's. Suggs crossed the plate four times on the day while Soto sand Townsend both accounted for two runs. Additionally, each of the Buffs first eight hitters in the game one lineup, rounded out by Thomas Miller, Pearson, Copas and Schneider, recorded a hit.
 
The trio of Suggs, Soto and Townsend struck again early in game two as a walk and a steal by Suggs, his team leading seventh of the season, a single by Soto and an RBI hit by Townsend led to two Buffs' runs in the first inning.
 
On the mound in game one, Austin Perry (3-2) picked up his team-leading third win of the season as he gave up only one earned run and seven hits through 5.2 innings. Perry stranded a Cavalier runner on second in each of the first five innings and added two pickoffs at first base to help the Buffs hold on to their advantage. Jacob Littleton (2-0) notched his first save of the season with 1.1 innings of relief work in the opener, and then earned the victory in game two.
 
Milligan's record moved to 7-10 overall as the Buffs also started off 2-0 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference. Milligan was able to snap a six-game skid while the Cavaliers moved to 4-12 overall and 0-2 in the league.
 
Next up, Milligan wraps up its three-game AAC-opening series with Montreat, Sunday, March 6, at 1 p.m. The Buffs then host Fisher College in two single games on Tuesday, March 8, at 4 p.m. and Wednesday, March 9, at 12 p.m.