THOMASVILLE, Ga. (Feb. 3, 2017) â€" The Milligan College baseball team opened up its 2017 campaign on Friday, taking on the Thomas University Night Hawks. The Buffs struggled to generated offense and a costly fourth inning ultimately led to a 9-5 defeat.
 
Austin Perry got the start for Milligan (0-1) and struck out two in 3.2 innings, but the Night Hawks exploded in the fourth inning to create an insurmountable deficit. With bases loaded and two outs in the bottom of the fourth, Thomas's Levi Hollingsworth doubled to left-center and emptied the bases.
 
The Buffs' chipped away at the Night Hawks' lead starting in the fifth inning. Senior Justin Pearson homered down the left field line and scored Milligan's first run of the season. Later in the inning, Juan Vasquez homered to left-center.
 
In the seventh inning, Julian Johnson joined in on the offense with a home run of his own, going deep to left field. In the top of the eighth, Pearson and Johnson added another run each, cutting the deficit to three. Pearson flied out to right field, scoring Ryan Young from third. During the next at-bat, Johnson singled to center and scored Clayton Conner from third.
 
That would be all the offense the Buffs could generate and the Night Hawks held on for the 9-5 victory.
 
Milligan returns to the diamond on Saturday for a doubleheader to finish the series against Thomas. The doubleheader starts at 2 p.m.