VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. - Guilford used a pair of late-inning rallies to chase down Virginia Wesleyan in both ends of a doubleheader Saturday at Marlins Field.

In the opener, the Quakers chipped away at an early 4-0 deficit, then erupted for five runs in the ninth inning to prevail 9-4. Guilford then used a six-run eighth inning to wipe out a 4-3 Marlins advantage and claim a 9-7 victory to complete the sweep.

Alex Tucci (Stewartstown, Pa./York Catholic) hurled six solid innings in the opener, Josh Miller (Norfolk, Va./Greenbrier Christian) had four hits and four RBIs in the two games and Alex Lambert (Virginia Beach, Va./Ocean Lakes) added three of Virginia Wesleyan's 16 hits in the nightcap, but it wasn't enough to prevent the Marlins from dropping their sixth straight game.

The Marlins used an RBI groundout by Anthony Siracusa (Auburn, N.Y./Auburn) and a run-scoring single from Matt Ittner (Virginia Beach, Va./Cox) to take a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the opener. In the second inning, Miller's two-run single gave the Marlins a 4-0 advantage. Quakers pitching settled down after that, though. The Marlins would manage only two more hits after the second inning and none in the last four.

The Quakers, meanwhile, posted single runs in the fourth and sixth and seventh. Marlins reliever Ryan Brinkley (Virginia Beach, Va./Cox) escapd further damage in the seventh by coming on with the bases loaded and no outs and retiring three straight hitters, two by strikeout. But the Quakers loaded the bases again in the eighth, this time with one out. Marlins centerfielder Pike Brynildsen (Alexandria, Va./T.C. Williams) made a diving catch of Casey Mann's sinking liner for the second out, but the run scored from third to tie the game at four.

Justin Pittman's RBI single in the ninth put the Quakers ahead for good. All five Guilford runs in that inning came with two outs.

Chad Wagoner got the win for Guilford with two innings of no-hit relief. Siracusa, who came on with one out in the eighth and was on the mound for the ill-fated ninth, suffered the loss.

In the nightcap, Guilford jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning, but the Marlins got one back in their half of the inning when Miller's triple drove in Brynildsen. In the fourth, Lambert doubled in Buddy Lawson  (Virginia Beach, Va./First Colonial) and Brett Sutryk (Bath, N.Y./Haverling) singled home Lambert to get the Marlins even at three. And in the seventh, Miller struck again as his single plated Billy Crowe (Haverling, N.Y./Bath) with the go-ahead run.

But the game blew up on the Marlins in the eighth, as the Quakers scored six times before the Marlins recorded an out The key hit was John Macon's Smith's three-run homer to right. But the turning point came earlier in the inning, with no outs, Quakers on second and third and the Marlins still clinging to their one-run lead. Danny Ditola laced a line drive that third baseman Lambert nearly corralled with a backhand stab. If Lambert had made the catch, he was just a few feet from doubling off the runner at third. Instead, the ball squirted off his glove and into short leftfield. Instead of having two outs and only a runner at third still down a run, the Quakers had a tie game and runners at second and third. The inning unraveled from there for the Marlins.

Still, the Marlins made things interesting in the ninth, as Miller's RBI double and Ittner's two-run single got them to within two runs. But they could get no closer.

The Marlins will host Randolph-Macon on Tuesday, April 3, at Marlins Field.