GREENEVILLE, Tenn.- The Queens University of Charlotte baseball team fell in a pair of games in their South Atlantic Conference road trip on Saturday afternoon to Tusculum University. The Pioneers took the first game by a score of 7-3 and a late-inning comeback victory in the nightcap, 12-11.
 
Game One: Tusculum 7, Queens 3 (Seven Inn.)
Six runs in the first two Pioneer trips to the plate proved to be too much to overcome for Queens, despite scoring three runs late. After Tusculum picked up three runs in the first inning on a single and a bases-loaded walk, they would plate four more in the second on the strength of two home runs. 
 
Queens couldn't get the bats going until the top of the seventh when they brought in all three of their runs in their final at-bat of the game.  Mason Pickard started it off as he singled to center which brought around Riley Cheek for their first run. Three batters later, Nick Melton bounced into a double play that would score Pickard. The Royals' final run came home as Nick Brassington doubled to center, scoring Julian Bailey.
 
Wes Boling took the loss after giving up five earned runs on six hits through an inning and a third. Luke Hutchinson settled things down on the mound as he went 3.3 IP giving up just one earned run on one hit and striking out three.  Garrett Crisp pitched the final inning and a two-thirds without surrendering a hit.
 
Bailey was 2-for-3 on the game with a run scored, while six other royals pitched up hits as well.
 
Game Two: Tusculum 12, Queens 11
Tusculum used some late-inning fireworks to march back and steal the nightcap from Queens on the back of a four-run bottom of the eighth that saw a walk, a hit by pitch, a wild pitch and an error prove to be the deciding factors. 
 
The Pioneers started the scoring for the second straight game scoring three in the third off of a triple and two-run home run.
 
Queens would answer back as they tied it in the top of the fourth as Anthony Orta picked up an infield single that led to two throwing errors on the play, scoring Noah Jones.  Nick Melton brought Orta around on a base hit into right. The Royals tied it on an Alex Sexton single to left that plated Melton.
 
Tusculum rattled off four more in the bottom of the inning to retake the lead at 7-3.
 
In a see-saw affair though, Queens had a burst of their own in the top of the fifth as they exploded for eight runs in the inning. It all started with a two-RBI single by Orta that saw Jones and Riley Cheek come across to score. The next batter was Melton who grounded out to third as Drake Harris scored on a throwing error by the Pioneers.  Dominic Ford launched a home run to left that brought in Orta as well, tying the ballgame at eight. Carter Foster then singled to right bringing Sexton home, followed by another Ford hit to right that scored Orta. The final run of the inning would be an exclamation point as Melton stole home to put the Royals on top 11-8.
 
Unfortunately for Queens, some pitching and fielding miscues in the bottom of the eighth were the difference as the Pioneers scored four unanswered of their own leading to the win and sweep of the doubleheader.
Drew Meschede was saddled with the loss giving up two runs, one earned, on two walks in just a third of an inning.  The Royals used five other pitchers in the game that combined for 10 runs, nine earned, on just six hits while racking up nine strikeouts as a staff.
 
Offensively, it was a good game for the Royals as they were paced by Ford, Jones, and Melton who all had three hits and combined for five of the nine runs batted in on the game. Queens had 16 hits on the game, with Riley Cheek and Orta each tallying two hits apiece as well.
 
The Royals will conclude their four-game conference road trip with a doubleheader Sunday afternoon beginning at 1 p.m. at Tusculum.