SoCon Baseball Recaps for March 10, 2008
DAVIDSON 7, YALE 6
DAVIDSON, N.C. -- Junior Chase FitzPatrick went 2-for-4 with three RBIs and drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of eighth inning to lead the Davidson baseball team to a two-game series sweep of visiting Yale with a 7-6 victory at Wilson Field on Monday, Mar. 10. The Wildcats took a 4-2 decision on Sunday in the first game of the series.
Davidson ran its winning streak to three straight to improve to 6-8 overall and evened its home mark to 6-6. Yale fell to 2-5 on the season.
With the score tied at 6-all, junior Pat Brady started the eighth with a line-drive double to right-center. He advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Hugh Eden. The Wildcats' next batter, Brett Shore, was intentionally walked, but was thrown out trying to steal second base, setting up FitzPatrick's late-game heroics.
The junior stepped into the box and took the first pitch for a ball, before then jumping on the next pitch and punching it through the right side for an RBI single and a 7-6 Wildcat lead.
Freshman Mike Frongello earned his second save in as many days, and fourth on the season, when he worked out of a two-on, one-out jam by striking out Jake Doyle and forcing pinch-hitter Trygg Larsson-Danforth to hit into a fielder's choice to end the game.
FitzPatrick also added a two-run jack, his second of the season, to dead-center to give the Wildcats an early 2-0 lead in bottom half of the first inning.
Matching FitzPatrick at the plate was first baseman Jay Honeycutt, who continues to flash his early season power. The sophomore went 2-for-5 with two runs scored and a big three-run homer in the fifth that brought Davidson back from a 5-2 deficit. The home run was his seventh of the season and pushed his team-leading RBI total to 21.
Yale knotted things up at 2-apiece after FitzPatrick's long-ball with single runs in the second and third innings, using an RBI single and one of its four home runs on the day. Ryan Lavarnway hit the first of his two bombs in the third to tie the score, and then added a two-run tater in the fifth that gave Yale a 4-2 lead at the time. The Bulldogs' catcher finished 3-for-4 with three runs batted in and two runs scored.
Jake Doyle and Andrew Kolmar also added long balls for the Bulldogs, with Kolmar's giving them a brief 6-5 lead in the sixth.
Davidson tied things up again in the bottom half of the sixth on a sac fly off the bat of Shore to plate Tommy Piacenza, who started the frame off with a single up the middle.
Freshman Mike Sliwiak was credited with the win as he pitched a perfect inning of relief to improve to 2-0 in the season. Chris Kennedy started the game for Davidson, giving up five runs and seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. He did strike out a season-high seven Bulldogs.
John Henry Davis suffered the loss on the mound as he gave up the game-winning single and finished with one inning pitched, allowing one run on three hits and striking out three.
Davidson takes an eight-day break before playing host to Columbia on Mar. 18 at 6 p.m. in the first of a short two-game series, before starting Southern Conference play with a three-game series against College of Charleston, Mar. 21-23.
WOFFORD 10, QUINNIPIAC 2
SPARTANBURG, S.C. ? The Wofford College baseball team defeated Quinnipiac 10-2 on Monday night at Niagara at Russell C. King Field. The Terriers were led by Jake Williams and Emre Caglayan with two hits each and pitcher Tom Dolinak had six strikeouts in the win.
Wofford is 10-3 on the season, while Quinnipiac is 1-3. The Terriers used five pitchers, with Tom Dolinak going 4.1 innings, Ryan Conway for 1.2 with a strikeout, Jordan Mickleberry an inning with a strikeout, Dawson Smith an inning with a strikeout and Drew Sheridan pitched the ninth inning with two strikeouts. For Quinnioiac, Joe Duffy went 4.1 innings with four strikeouts and six hits allowed and Eric Bretscher went 3.2 innings with three strikeouts and two hits.
To open the game, the Bobcats left three men on base in the top of the first. The Terriers got on the scoreboard first when Sterling Dye led things off with a single and advanced to third on a ground out by Michael Gilmartin. Dye gave Wofford a 1-0 when he scored on a passed ball.
After a scoreless second, John Delaney singled for Quinnipiac and was driven in by a double from Jeff Carino to tie the game. In the bottom of the third, Emre Caglayan led off with a triple and scored on a sacrifice fly from Jake Williams. Sterling Dye reached on an error and two batters later scored on a fly ball from Shane Kirkley to take a 3-1 lead.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Terriers added a run when Emre Caglayan singled and drove in Kyle Behrendt. In the top of the fifth, the Bobcats added a run on a solo homer by Pete Kummerfeldt for a 4-2 score.
Wofford opened the game up in the bottom of the fifth inning as Michael Gilmartin walked and Shane Kirkley was hit by a pitch to start things off. Ryan Toniolo hit a one-out single to drive in Michael Gilmartin. A two-out single by Kyle Behrendt scored Adam Kearney and Ryan Toniolo. Behrendt scored on a passed ball to give the Terriers a 8-2 lead after five innings.
Michael Gilmartin scored a run in the sixth inning and in the seventh a double by Jake Williams scored Kyle Behrendt for the 10-2 final score.
On Friday, Wofford will begin a four-game series with Yale at 7:00 pm. On Saturday, the teams will play a doubleheader at 1:00 pm, followed by a single game Sunday at 1:00 p.m.