MURFREESBORO – The weekend didn’t start well for the Braves.

North Greenville College beat out 17 hits and topped Chowan College 9-4 in baseball action Friday.

Chowan coach Aaron Carroll said he wasn’t pleased with the effort of the Braves.

&uot;We didn’t play well at all Friday,&uot; he said. &uot;We made some mistakes and just played flat. We had a little ‘come to Jesus’ meeting after the game and got their heads back on straight.&uot;

Whatever Carroll said to his team worked as they rolled off back-to-back victories in a doubleheader with the same club on Saturday.

Freshman pitcher Bryan Hill took the mound for the Braves in game one and tossed a two-hit shutout to pick up his second win of the season by a count of 5-0.

&uot;Saturday we got outstanding pitching all day,&uot; Carroll said. &uot;In the first game, Bryan Hill just handled them. He did a great job for us.&uot;

While Hill was taking care of North Greenville’s bats, the Braves started hitting themselves later in the game.

&uot;It took a while for us to get going offensively,&uot; the coach said. &uot;They threw their top pitcher, a left-hander who no-hit us down there. We got a couple of big hits late in the game and broke it open from there.&uot;

In all, Chowan collected seven hits led by Joey Ryder who was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs on the afternoon. Joel Ortiz knocked in two runs on one hit to help propel the Braves.

In the second game of the day, Chowan held off North Greenville to win 6-4 and claim victory number 14 on the year.

&uot;Brandon Hamlett didn’t have his best stuff, but he battled all day,&uot; Carroll said of his second-game starter. &uot;We made some nice plays behind him and swung the bat fairly well.&uot;

Hamlett allowed six hits through seven innings of work. He allowed only two earned runs while striking out one and walking five.

Eight different Braves had hits during the contest. Justin Hollingsworth led the effort with two hits and an RBI.

&uot;We played excellent baseball all day,&uot; Carroll said. &uot;The guys played hard and hustled. We played good defense behind the guys on the mound.&uot;

Carroll’s team has a 14-9 mark on the year heading into Tuesday’s 3 p.m. home date with Barton College.

That record is a solid one considering the Braves have no returning pitchers on this year’s squad.

&uot;We are relying on freshmen and guys who are really position players that have been converted to pitchers,&uot; Carroll said. &uot;We’ve had four or five guys who have stepped up and threw some quality innings for us.&uot;