#2 College of Charleston 5, #5 The Citadel 4
CHARLESTON, SC ? The College of Charleston won its first Southern Conference Baseball Tournament Championship with a 5-4 victory over rival The Citadel in the championship game of the 2006 SoCon Baseball Tournament before 4,462 individuals at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.
The Cougars receive the SoCon’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament. College of Charleston will learn of its foes and region in the event when the selections are announced at 12:30 p.m. on Monday, May 29 on ESPN.
With the score tied at 3-3 in the fourth inning, College of Charleston’s Phillip Coker started the inning by doubling down the left field line. Joey Friddle then singled in Coker to give the Cougars the lead at 4-3.
Two batters later Chris Campbell picked up his second RBI of the evening when he singled through the left side to score Friddle and pad the Cougars lead at 5-3.The run would prove to be the game winner.
The Bulldogs pulled to within one in the bottom of the fifth inning on a Chris Swauger dinger to straightaway centerfield. The home run would prove to be the final run of the contest.
With the contest 3-0 in favor of College of Charleston going into the bottom of the third inning, The Citadel found a way to get itself back into the game.
The first two runs of the game for the Bulldogs came through a Sonny Meade triple to centerfield that plated Matt Covington and Swauger. The Bulldogs squared things at 3-3 on a Zach Brown sacrifice fly to right center.
The Cougars did not take too long to etch their name on the scoreboard, as Campbell teed off on a Ryan Owens pitch in the top of the first inning to put College of Charleston on top 1-0. The home run was the fourth of the campaign for Campbell.
The Cougars were able to score for the second consecutive inning in the top of the second inning. Catcher Alex Garabedian scored the first run after the Bulldogs were unable to end the inning on a double play.
College of Charleston then extended its lead to 3-0 one batter later on an RBI double down the left field line that scored Phillip Coker, who had previously reached base on the foiled double play attempt.
The Citadel concludes its season at 34-27.
2006 Southern Conference All-Tournament Team
P ? Nick Chigges, College of Charleston
C ? Alex Garabedian, College of Charleston
1B ? Trey McDaniel, Western Carolina
2B ? Chris Campbell, College of Charleston
SS ? Jess Easterling, College of Charleston
3B ? Adam Weaver, Elon
OF ? Chris Swauger, The Citadel
OF ? Larry Cobb, College of Charleston
OF ? Chris Price, Elon
DH ? Sonny Meade, The Citadel
Tournament Co-MVP’s:
Nick Chigges, College of Charleston
Jess Easterling, College of Charleston
CofC Head Coach John Pawlowski
“This is unbelievable. We knew it would be hard but these guys fought hard and came through in the end. The atmosphere here tonight was great with both team’s fans really making it exciting. This was a great college baseball game. It’s really exciting for us because we have never won the tournament before and I just want these guys to really enjoy the moment.”
CofC Co-MVP Jess Easterling
“It really hasn’t hit me yet. We’ve never done this at the College before. It is great to win the regular season but you can’t beat this atmosphere. You have to take your hats off to the Citadel because they played extremely hard. To win four straight games is really hard and I’m just so proud of the way we played as well.”
CofC All-Tournament Member Alex Garabedian
“It’s unbelievable right now. We fought hard and kept together, and we kept playing hard. All season long the Citadel has had our number and to come out and beat them is awesome. This is one of the reasons I came here was for a chance at a championship and a chance to go to the NCAA regional’s.”
The Citadel’s Fred Jordan
“They are a very good ball club. To fight as hard as we did and be on the losing end is tough. We had several opportunities. We had situations where had we runners in scoring position and just could not get it done.”
The Citadel’s Matt Covington
“Maybe if had a couple hits go the right way it may be a different ball game and we would be playing tomorrow.”