SoCon Baseball Recaps for April 18, 2008
ELON 15, COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON 14
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. -- Dallas Tarleton homered and drove in five runs and Bennett Davis added a homer and four RBI as Elon hung on for a thrilling 15-14 win over the College of Charleston in Southern Conference baseball action before 336 at Patriots Point Field on Friday.
With the win, the Phoenix improved to 29-11 and 13-3 in league play. The Cougars fell to 25-13 and 8-5. Game two of the series is Saturday at 1:00.
Charleston's Michael Harrington belted a school record-tying three homers including a first inning two-run shot that gave the Cougars a 2-0 lead.
Trailing 2-1 entering the top of the third inning. Elon sent 13 batters to the plate and scored seven times to take an 8-2 lead. Davis belted a two-run homer to right and Tarleton added a three-run shot to left to highlight the inning.
Jeremie Tice's solo homer to left and a run-scoring single from Brandon Sizemore cut Elon's lead to 8-4 in the third inning. Harrington's second homer of the game was another two-run blast and pulled Charleston to within 8-6 in the fourth inning.
An RBI single by Davis, a sacrifice fly by Neal Pritchard and a bases loaded walk to Ryan Adams stretched Elon's lead to 11-6 in the fifth inning. The Cougars got an RBI double from Stuart Haywood and a run-producing grounder by Cole Rakar that cut Elon's lead to 12-8 in the seventh.
After Elon tallied three runs in the top of the ninth, the Cougars made things interesting in their final at bat. Michael Kohn had an RBI single, Matt Leeds a bases loaded walk and Clay McCord a sacrifice fly that cut the margin to 15-11. Harrington followed with a towering three-run homer to center, his team-leading 15th on the season, that made it a 15-14 game. After Tice singled to right, Elon closer Thomas Girdwood struck out Gabe Marchant to end the 3-hour, 53-minute marathon.
Harrington finished with three hits and seven RBI, while Marchant had two hits and scored three times. Cory Harrilchak added three hits and Neal Pritchard scored three times for Elon.
Steven Hensley (8-0) picked up the win despite surrendering six runs, five earned, over the first five innings. He walked six and struck out seven. Hensley, a junior, tied an Elon record with his 274th career strikeout. Girdwood recorded the game's final out for his ninth save of the season. Austin Garrett (5-2) was the starter and loser for Charleston.
Harrington became just the third Charleston player to hit three homers in a game, and the first to accomplish the feat at home. Monte Lee hit three homers at South Carolina on Feb. 6, 1999 and Lee Curtis belted three at VMI on May 12, 2002.
GEORGIA SOUTHERN 10, DAVIDSON 4
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Ty Wright collected a home run, a double and three RBIs, while Jeremiah Parker stroked a three-run homer and drove in five runs to lead Georgia Southern to a 10-4 baseball victory over Davidson in the opener of a SoCon series at Wilson Field Friday night.
The Eagles (19-17, 6-7 SoCon) used their running game to steal six bases and manufacture five runs. Danny Weiss was 3-for-5 with a double and two RBIs to lead Davidson (9-23, 1-12 SoCon) from the plate. Hugh Eden was 3-for-5 and scored two runs, while Chris FitzPatrick collected two hits.
Wright took the first pitch of the game over the left field wall to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead, but the Wildcats came right back with two runs in the bottom of the first.
Eden led off with a single, stole second and scored on a Weiss single with one out. Weiss scored on a Tommy Piacenza fielder's choice when Eagle second baseman Jeremy Beckham missed the tag on Chase FitzPatrick moving to second base on a grounder.
Wright reached on an error in the third, and after Davidson got two outs, the Wildcats thought they had the third on a Griffin Benedict groundout. But Benedict was given first on a catcher's interference call, and Parker followed with a three-run homer to give the Eagles a 4-2 advantage.
The Eagles made it 5-2 in the top of the fifth when Chris Shehan walked, stole second and scored on a Parker single. Davidson answered in the home half of the frame as Kayne walked, went to second and scored on Chris FitzPatrick's single.
Georgia Southern made the margin 6-3 when David Richardson walked, stole second, went to third on a sacrifice bunt and scored on a sac fly in the sixth. Shehan walked, stole second and scored later on a sacrifice fly to make the cushion 7-3 in the seventh. The Eagles broke it open in the eighth as Wright plated two with a double and Benedict drove in a run with a single.
Weiss made the final margin 10-4 with a two-out, RBI double in the bottom of the ninth.
One of the bright spots for the 'Cats was the return of Matt Webb to his regular position at shortstop. It was just the sophomore's third start there this season as injuries have kept him out of the lineup. He combined with second baseman Zach Kayne for a pair of tough double plays in the first and second innings.
Davidson and Georgia Southern will play again Saturday at 2 p.m. at Wilson Field. The Wildcats will honor their five seniors prior to the first pitch of the contest.
FURMAN 17, WOFFORD 1
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Jay Jackson hurled eight strong innings of baseball to lead Furman to a 17-1 win over Wofford Friday in the opener of a three-game Southern Conference series at Furman Stadium.
Jackson, who improved to 8-1 on the season, was in near total command throughout, surrendering only one run on four hits. The Taylors product and former Christ Church Episcopal Church star walked three and fanned six in keying Furman (21-14, 7-6 SoCon) to its sixth conference victory in the last seven games.
Wofford (20-18, 4-9 SoCon) fell for the sixth time in its last seven league outings.
Jackson needed little offensive support in the contest, but the junior right-hander received plenty as the Paladins banged out 15 hits while scoring a season high 17 runs. Furman also benefitted from nine walks issued by Terrier pitching.
Ryan Lee paced Furman at the plate, going 3-for-3 and scoring three runs.
The freshman first baseman, who is a scholarship offensive tackle on the Paladin football team, led off the second inning with a double and later scored to give Furman a 1-0 lead. Marcus Rose’ two-out, two-run single up the middle capped the four-run frame and would prove to be all the offense the Paladins would need.
Joey Rodgers, Matt Hemingway, and Brian Harrison each delivered two hits and two RBI, and the trio combined to score 10 run of Furman’s 17 runs, including a game high four by Rodgers, the reigning SoCon Player-of-the-Week.
Freshman outfielder Rob Fondu went 1-for-3 and drove in three runs, including a two-run single in the seventh-run Paladin seventh.
All but one of Furman’s starters registered a hit.
Furman roughed up Terrier starting and losing pitcher Scott Summers (5-5) for seven runs on eight hits and four walks over six innings.
The Paladins and Terrriers play game two of the three-game set on Saturday at 6:00 p.m.
APPALACHIAN STATE 6, WESTERN CAROLINA
BOONE, N.C. - Sophomore right-hander Matt Andress (Charlotte, N.C./South Mecklenburg) surrendered just five hits over eight sterling innings to lead Appalachian State University baseball to a 6-2 win over archrival Western Carolina on Friday evening at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.
Andress (5-3) didn't issue a walk, struck out three and needed just 107 pitches to match the longest outing of his career and the longest by a Mountaineer pitcher this season. Andress also went eight innings in a 13- 0 win over Yale on March 9.
Appalachian (19-20, 4-9 SoCon) took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single from Isaac Harrow (Hickory, N.C./Hickory) but Western Carolina (17-19, 6-7 SoCon) answered with a run of its own in the third to knot the game at 1-1.
ASU's offense gave Andress all of the support that he would need with four more runs in the fourth. Wes Hobson's (Winston-Salem, N.C./North Forsyth) two-out, two-run triple to right center field capped the fourth-inning explosion.
Western Carolina's Reid Rollison homered in the fifth, but that would be all WCU (17-19, 6-7 SoCon) would muster against Andress the rest of the way. The Catamounts loaded the bases to bring the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth, but Appalachian closer Garrett Sherrill (Kannapolis, N.C./A.L. Brown) struck out Rollison to end the game.
Thanks to Andress' effort, the Mountaineers have now held opponents to less than four runs in four-straight games, which marks the team's longest such streak since 1994.
Hobson, Jason Altenhof (Santa Fe, Fla./Santa Fe) and Jason Wallace (Greensboro, N.C./Ragsdale) notched three hits apiece to lead Appalachian offensively, while Harrow extended his hitting streak to 12 games with the first-inning single.
WCU's Mike Tavernier allowed five runs on eight hits in just four innings of work to fall to 3-2.
The teams continue their three-game SoCon series on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Smith Stadium.
UNC GREENSBORO 3, THE CITADEL 1
GREENSBORO, N.C. ? UNC Greensboro came away with a 3-1 victory over The Citadel in game one of the three-game Southern Conference series Friday evening in Charleston, SC.
The Spartans tallied single runs in the second, fourth, and seventh and held the Bulldogs to just one just in the third. UNCG tied their game high three double plays going 4-6-3 all three times and with two successful pickoffs, The Citadel now leads the nation with a total of 20.
The Spartans (23-12, 9-4 SoCon) lit up the board first in the top half of the second inning with the aid of the Bulldogs (22-16, 10-6 SoCon). With two away and runners on second and third, third baseman Ray Quinones laid the ball in front of the pitcher. Sean Snell, who was on third, got the go-ahead home, but rather than go for the play at the plate, The Citadel chose to go for the force-out at first. Matt Crim gathered up the ball, but a muffled throw left both Quinones and Snell safe and gave UNCG the 1-0 lead.
The Bulldogs nearly tied the ballgame up at 1-1 in the home half of the second with an outfield single, but Snell easily gunned Chris McGuiness down from right field. The Citadel got their 1-1 tie off of a solid hit through the left side in the third by Bryan Altman to drive in Brad Felder.
UNCG regained the one-run lead in the top of the fourth as left fielder Pedro Leon slapped a double just feet off of the left field line to bring Corey Overholtzer in from second. Three innings later, the Spartans made it a 3-1 game as shortstop Matt Gaski drifted a single into right field to plate Quinones from second.
UNCG turned second-short-first double plays in the first, sixth, and seventh to mark the second time the team has turned three DPs in a single game and improved their total to 36 on the season. This is the sixth game in a row the blue and gold have nabbed the two-for-one.
The Spartan sticks were led by Corey Overholtzer who was 2-for-4 with a run, a single, and a double. Matt Gaski went 3-for-5 with three singles, and an RBI. The Bulldogs were led by Chris Swauger and Sonny Meade who were both 2-for-3.
Starting pitcher Greg Martin (4-2) collected the win for the Spartans. In his seven innings on the mound he retired four and gave up on run. Rob Gilliam (2-3) recorded his fifth save of the season after coming in to pitch two innings. While at the rubber, he allowed zero hits, zero runs, and struck out three.
The Spartans and the Bulldogs return to Riley Park on Saturday for game two of the three-game series. First pitch is slated for 2pm.