MILLIGAN COLLEGE, Tenn. (April 27, 2018) â€" Clayton Conner hit his team leading sixth home run of the season to give the Milligan College baseball team the early lead in the first game of an Appalachian Athletic Conference twin bill against No. 23 Tennessee Wesleyan University Friday evening at Anglin Field, but the Buffaloes fell twice to the Bulldogs. TWU bounced back to take game one 9-5 before jumping out to a big lead in the first inning on the way to winning game two 11-1.
 
Although Bryan Soto added a home run later in game one and Jascanel Ferreras went 3-for-4 in game two, Tennessee Wesleyan (33-18, 20-6 AAC) won the series with its ninth win in the last 10 games. Milligan dropped to 18-28 (11-15 AAC) on the season.
 
HOME RUNS GIVE BUFFS ADVANTAGE, GAME ONE
Conner hit his homer in the bottom of the first inning, a 2-run shot to left field, to give Milligan a 2-0 lead. Three innings later Soto also sent one over the left field fence to make it 3-1.
 
Chris Patterson added a two-RBI single in the fifth to give Milligan a 5-1 advantage, but Tennessee Wesleyan responded with eight runs over the last four innings.
 
HOME RUNS SWING THE LEAD
A 2-run homer in the sixth from Wesleyan's Dakota Phillips helped the Bulldogs narrow the deficit, and a 3-run homer in the ninth from Aloyius Cruz put the Bulldogs into the lead.
 
SINGLES GIVE BULLDOGS ADVANTAGE, GAME TWO
Whereas home runs were the biggest factor in game one, Tennessee Wesleyan jumped out to an early lead of 6-0 through the first inning of game two, all thanks to singles. They hit one to left, one up the middle, and three to right, building an insurmountable lead before Milligan took its first turn at the plate.
 
Milligan scored its lone run of game two, via a pair of singles, in the bottom of the fourth. Thomas Miller started the inning off with a single up the middle before pinch runner Juan Vasquez came home to score on a Garrett Dalton RBI single to left-center.
 
UP NEXT
Milligan and Tennessee Wesleyan finish the series and their regular seasons with the finale of the three-game series Saturday at 1 p.m. At 12 p.m., Milligan will honor its senior class. The AAC tournament is scheduled for Wednesday-Saturday, May 2-5, at Hunter Wright Stadium in Kingsport.