WESTERN CAROLINA 8, GEORGIA SOUTHERN 3
CULLOWHEE, N.C. ? Sparked by a two-run home run to right center field by freshman Adam Baker, Western Carolina scored six runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to erase a three-run deficit en route to an 8-3 victory over Georgia Southern Friday night in Southern Conference baseball action at Childress Field/Hennon Stadium.
The win, coupled with the College of Charleston splitting its regular season-ending double-header, assures WCU at least a share of its 11th SoCon regular season championship. The Cougars downed Davidson 14-2 in game one of a Friday double-header, but the Wildcats scored three runs on three hits and capitalized on a pair of CofC errors to rally in the top of the ninth to tie the game at five to force extra innings. Davidson pulled ahead on a two-out RBI single up the middle in the top of the 11th and retired the Cougars in order in the bottom for the victory.
Western, which won for the 40th time on year marking the sixth 40-win season in school history, can clinch the regular season crown and the number one seed in next week’s SoCon tournament outright with a win on Saturday afternoon. First pitch in the regular season finale is set for 2:00 pm.
Red-shirt sophomore Drew Saberhagen (8-1) recorded a career-high six strikeouts, scattering six base hits in six innings of work to pick up the victory for Western. Senior Brock Thornburg garnered his third career save ? and first of the season ? by pitching three effective innings allowing only one Eagle base hit and just two base runners.
Two Catamounts, freshman Nick Liles and junior Barrett Shaft, each finished with three hits apiece to lead the Catamounts with Liles tallying his ninth double of the season. Senior Kenny Smith finished 2-for-4 at the plate, driving in a game-high three runs to move his seasonal tally to 79 moving him ahead of former Catamount catcher ? and current head coach Todd Raleigh ? into second place on the WCU single-season RBI chart. The Asheville, N.C., native is now just five shy of tying Western’s single-season RBI tally held by Chris Moore (84, 1999). He is also just eight shy of tying the SoCon single-season record of 87 held by CofC’s Chris Campbell (2005).
Waynesville’s Blake Murphy rounded out the four multi-hit games for the Catamounts with a 2-for-3 showing at the plate, driving in the tying run on an RBI double down the left field line that just squirted inside the bag at third in the sixth inning.
After stranding five runners through the first three innings, trailing 2-0 Western threatened in the fourth inning as senior John Ingram drew a lead-off walk and was advanced to third on a blooper double down the right field line by Liles. However, the rally was squelched when freshman Brent Greer flew out to shallow right field and Ingram was gunned down in a hard collision at the plate which resulted in Ingram being ejected from the game. As per Southern Conference rules, Ingram will miss Saturday’s game.
Georgia Southern pushed across a run in the top of the fifth to grab a 3-0 lead before the Catamounts scored eight unanswered to claim victory.
In the home portion of the sixth, Liles led off with a sharp-hit single to short when his classmate, Baker, hammered the first pitch he saw over the fence in right center to put WCU on the board, 3-2, chasing Eagle starting pitcher Brian Wilkerson. Greer then fought off a full count to single up the middle and advanced to second on a passed ball. Two batters later, Murphy double down the left field line to knot the game at three.
The inning continued with junior Steven Strausbaugh drawing one of his two walks on the night with Smith driving in Murphy from second on a single into center field. Yet, a fielding error by Eagle centerfielder, Matt Miller, allowed Strausbaugh to score, 5-3. Miller compounded the mistake with an arrant throw back to the infield which allowed Smith to move to third base with junior Jonathan Greene’s RBI single plating Smith to finish off the scoring, 6-3 Catamounts.
Western added two insurance runs in the seventh on a two-RBI single by Smith, scoring Greer and Shaft who reached on a hit by pitch and single, respectively.
Georgia Southern (32-26, 12-14 SoCon) reliever Drew Murray (4-7) was saddled with the loss after coming on in the middle of the sixth after Baker’s home run and allowed three earned runs on three hits in one third of an inning pitched. Senior designated hitter Justin Klinger lifted a two-RBI double to left field in the top of the first to stake the Eagles to the early advantage, with GSU scoring its final run in the visitor half of the fifth inning.
Prior to Saturday afternoon’s game, Western Carolina will honor its five seniors in a pre-game ceremony. Seniors Tyler Johnson, John Ingram, Kenny Smith, Brock Thornburg and Donnie Wilson will each be making their final regular season appearance at Childress Field at Hennon Stadium.
THE CITADEL 13, PAST FURMAN 5
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- The Citadel belted four home runs to overpower Furman
13-5 in Southern Conference baseball action Friday evening in front of 696 fans at Furman Stadium.
Chris Swauger, Sonny Meade, Zach Brown, and Kyle Jordan all went deep to headline an explosive 16-hit Bulldog offensive attack and draw The Citadel (30-24, 12-14 SoCon) even in the three game series, which concludes Saturday with a 4:00 p.m. game.
The win moves the Bulldogs into a sixth place tie with Georgia Southern in the league standings following the Eagles’ 8-3 loss to Western Carolina on Friday. A Citadel win on Sunday would guarantee the Bulldogs no worse than a sixth place regular season finish and chance to take fifth if UNC-Greensboro beats Appalachian State on Saturday. The Bulldogs hold both tiebreakers against Georgia Southern and Appalachian State.
The loss snaps a four-game winning streak for Furman (18-35, 10-16 SoCon) and assures the Paladins an eighth place regular season finish and likely first round matchup against Davidson, currently in ninth place, in Southern Conference Touranment action, which gets underway Tuesday at Charleston’s Joseph P. Riley Park.
Brown, Matt Arnold, Joe Hoerter collected three hits each for the Bulldogs, and Swauger combined with Arnold to drive in three runs each for The Citadel, which broke open a 4-4 game with three runs in the sixth, highlighted by a two-run double by Arnold.
Chris McGuiness’ pinch-hit RBI double in the seventh inning made it 8-4, and the Bulldogs took total command with a five-run eighth that included a sacrifice fly RBI by Chance Smith, three-run home run to center field by Swauger, and solo shot by Brown, also to center field.
The Bulldogs’ heavy lumber helped Matt Crim (6-3) earn the victory after giving up seven hits and four runs, all earned, in five innings of work. He walked two and struck out four.
Jay Jackson (1-4) took the loss for Furman. He yielded five runs, all earned, on five hits and walked three while striking out four. Jackson surrendered a pair of home runs, including a two-run roundtripper to Meade in the third and two-out solo blast by Kyle Jordan in the fifth.
Five Paladins ? Connor Lind, Tony Maccani, Will Stembridge, Paul Ortenzo, and Charlie Bailes ? collected two hits apiece, and Jay Jackson drove in a pair of runs and scored twice to help his own pitching cause.
Furman’s bullpen was roughed up for 11 of the Bulldogs’ hits over the final four innings.
APPALACHIAN STATE 10, UNC GREENSBORO 8
GREENSBORO, N.C. ? Wes Hobson’s two-run home run in the ninth inning lifted Appalachian State to a 10-8 victory over UNC Greensboro in game two of a three-game Southern Conference series on Friday evening at UNCG Baseball Stadium.
With the game tied at eight a piece in the ninth and a runner on first, Hobson sent his second home run of the season over the rightfield fence to give the Mountaineers the two-run advantage. UNCG, however, would not go down without a fight. Tim Carrier and Matt Gaski recorded back-to-back one out singles and both advanced on a groundout by Guy Welsh. Ricky Orton followed with a walk, but Appalachian State reliever Garrett Sherrill struck out the final UNCG batter to secure the win.
UNCG (28-27, 14-12 SoCon) took an early two-run advantage in the bottom of the second. The Spartans recorded three straight two-out walks to load the bases for Corey Overholtzer. The freshman laced a single to centerfield to score Sean Snell and Brandon Harvey, giving UNCG the 2-0 lead.
Hobson gave ASU (31-24, 13-13 SoCon) its first run of the game in the third on a RBI double to left. The Mountaineers took the lead in the fourth when David Towarnicky sent a two RBI triple deep to left-center. Tom Prosser followed with a groundout that scored Towarnicky, 4-2 ASU.
Welsh cut the Mountaineer lead to one in the same inning with a two-out RBI infield single. ASU quickly responded with two runs in the fifth and took a 6-3 lead. With the bases loaded and two outs, Prosser reached on an infield single to score Isaac Harrow and Chris Baker drew a walk to plate Jerod Faggart for the three-run advantage.
The Spartans picked up a run in the fifth when a hit to center by Adam Deleo score Feltes, who singled to lead-off the inning. The Mountaineers had a chance to build their lead in the sixth with the bases loaded and no outs. After giving up a walk that loaded the bases, senior Nick Starnes struck out three straight to get out of the jam.
UNCG scored two runs in the sixth to tie the game at six apiece. Gaski reached on a walk and Welsh advanced on an ASU error before Orton sent his 16th two-bagger of the season to right-center, scoring both runners. Hobson, however, put the Mountaineers back on top with a RBI fielder’s choice in the seventh and scored ASU’s eighth run of the night on a Spartan error, 8-6 Mountaineers.
The Spartans answered with two runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at eight runs apiece. Gaski singled and Orton walked before Snell laced a two-out double down the leftfield line.
Sherrill (9-5) was credited the win after pitching two innings of relief and allowing two runs on four hits.
Starnes (5-5) took the loss after giving up four runs on four hits in four innings on the mound.
Carrier and Gaski each finished 3-for-5 to lead the Spartans from the plate. Snell went 1-for-2 with two RBI and three walks.
WOFFORD 6, ELON 3
ELON, N.C. - Steven Hensley struck out 10 Wofford Terrier hitters, but the Elon Phoenix fell by a 6-3 score thanks to four unearned runs allowed in the second inning in Southern Conference baseball action on Friday night. With the win, Wofford's first over Elon since the Phoenix joined the SoCon, the Terriers improved to 24-30 overall and 7-18 in league play. It was also the first road victory of the season for the Terriers. Elon dropped to 28-26, 14-10 but held on to third place in the league standings thanks to UNC Greensboro being defeated by Appalachian State.
Mike Gilmartin gave Wofford a quick lead as he launched his 12th homer of the season over the centerfield wall to start the game.
With two away and Sterling Dye on third thanks to a walk, steal and an error, Keith Munns struck out, but the ball got away from catcher Drew Davis and Dye scored. Eric Sturkie followed with a homer to left, his fifth of the year to give Wofford a 4-0 lead. Gilmartin bunted a ball over the head of Chris Vasami at first that landed in rightfield for a single. Bradford Eaves lined a double off the wall in left and another Phoenix error allowed Gilmartin to score the fifth Terrier run.
Elon got back into it in the bottom of the second. Davis was hit by a pitch to start the inning and went to second on a ground out. Mike Melillo followed by lining a single to left to score Davis. Melillo went to second on the throw to the plate. Ryan Addison cut the lead to 5-3 by hitting his 10th homer of the season, a two-run shot down the leftfield line.
Back-to-back one out doubles from Munns and Sturkie scored a run to push the Wofford lead to 6-3 in the top of the sixth. The doubles were the first hits allowed by Hensley since the second inning.
Davis drew a walk to begin the Elon eighth and went to second on Melillo's one-out single. Wofford's Ben Austin then retired both Addison and Chase Austin on fly balls to end the Phoenix threat.
Hensley (7-5) suffered the loss despite allowing just two earned runs and fanning 10 over 7.0 innings. Hensley climbed into third place on Elon's single-season strike out list as he has now fanned 99 hitters on the year. He also moved into Elon's career top-10 in the same category, now ranking eighth with 195 strike outs. Combined with Tom Porter's two strikeouts in the last two innings, Phoenix hurlers fanned 12. It was just the second time this year that Elon fell when striking out at least 10 hitters.
Austin Redwine (5-5) picked up the win after giving up three runs over 6.0 innings of work. Redwine fanned five and did not walk a batter while allowing six hits. Ben Austin earned his first save of the year after throwing three scoreless innings.
Melillo posted a 3-for-4, one-run, one-RBI night for Elon while Austin added two hits in four at bats.
For Wofford, Gilmartin, Eaves and Sturkie all had two hits. Sturkie had three of the four Terrier RBI.
COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 14-1, DAVIDSON 2-5
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- Michael Harrington and Graham Maiden homered and Brian Schlitter tossed a complete-game, four-hitter as the College of Charleston downed Davidson, 14-2, in the opener of its Southern Conference baseball doubleheader at Patriots Point Field on Friday. Davidson earned a split by rallying for a 6-5, 11-inning victory in the nightcap.
With the split, the Cougars end the regular season with a 39-17 overall record and a 20-7 league mark. The Wildcats finish the regular season at 19-33 and 8-19. Both teams will play in the Southern Conference Tournament that begins on Tuesday at Joe Riley Park in Charleston. A win by the Cougars in the second game would have secured at least a share of the SoCon's regular season title and the tournament's top seed.
In the opener, Harrington hit his 12th homer of the season, a grand slam in the second inning that gave Charleston a 4-0 lead. Maiden's homer was his 10th and was a three-run shot in the seventh.
Schlitter (5-4) pitched a complete-game in his first start of the season. He allowed two runs with nine strikeouts. Thomas Middour (5-7) suffered the loss.
Davidson got two hits from Matt Webb including a ninth inning solo homer.
In the nightcap, the Wildcats scored three runs in the ninth to tie the game at 5-5. Zach Kayne's two-out single to center in the 11th inning scored Graham Chapman from second base for the game-winner. Chapman had walked to lead off the inning on four pitches and moved to second on Tommy Piacenza's sacrifice bunt.
Davidson used three hits and two Charleston errors in the ninth to force extra innings. Piacenza's two-run single to right cut the Charleston lead to 5-4. Davidson tied the game on a one-out error that allowed Pat Brady to score.
Matt Webb (3-1) picked up the win in relief allowing no runs on just two hits over the final four innings. Webb worked out of a bases loaded jam in the ninth and a one-out, runner at third base situation in the 10th inning. Michael Bunton (4-2) suffered the loss in relief.
The Cougars got homers from Alex Garabedian and Gabe Marchant.