The Citadel 12, UNCG 2
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Mason Davis became the fifth Citadel player with a multiple-home run game this season, clearing the right-field fence twice and driving in a career-high five runs to lead the Bulldogs to a 12-2 victory over UNCG in the opening game of a Southern Conference series Thursday night.
The Citadel (32-22, 18-10 SoCon) moved within one win of clinching the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament, which gets under way May 22 in Greenville, S.C. The Bulldogs have exploded for 33 runs and 34 hits, including nine home runs, in their last two games.
Davis joins Tyler Griffin, Bo Thompson, Calvin Orth and Joe Jackson with at least two home runs in a game, marking the first time in school history that five different players have accomplished that feat in a single season. Jackson also went deep against the Spartans to give The Citadel a total of 61 on the season, just the second time a Bulldog team has reached the 60 plateau.
The Citadel needs two more home runs to tie the 2007 team for the most in a regular season and nine to match that same squad for the overall record of 70. The Bulldogs tied a school record on Tuesday when they had six circuit clouts in a 21-6 victory over Charleston Southern, and The Citadel is attempting to lead the SoCon in home runs for the first time in school history.
Senior Austin Pritcher, a leading candidate for SoCon Pitcher of the Year, did not have his best stuff but was able to limit UNCG (22-31, 9-19) to two runs on eight hits with four strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings. He won his fifth straight decision and finished the regular season with a record of 8-2 and an ERA of 2.45.
Davis had three hits, including a two-run homer in the fourth that gave The Citadel a 6-0 lead and a three-run blast in the seventh that put the finishing touches on the Bulldog victory. Jackson added two doubles, a home run and sacrifice fly and drove in four runs, and Hughston Armstrong and Drew DeKerlegand also had three-hit contests.
Jackson continued his late-season push for SoCon Player of the Year, increasing his season totals to 15 doubles, 12 home runs and 58 RBIs and a batting average of .360. His sacrifice fly and run-scoring singles by Griffin and DeKerlegand got the offense started quickly in a three-run first inning, and the Bulldogs were never seriously threatened.
Jackson led off the third with a solo homer and followed Davis' first homer of the night with an RBI double to stake The Citadel to a 7-0 cushion in the fourth. Jackson also doubled in a run in the sixth, and Bailey Rush added a sacrifice fly in the seventh.
Pritcher was able to work around four singles over the first three innings before being tagged for a solo homer by Eric Kalbfleisch leading off the fourth. The Spartans also scored in the fifth when Griffin just missed coming up with a spectacular diving catch in right center that ended up as an RBI double for Lloyd Enzor.
Pritcher won for the 22nd time in his career, the most by any active SoCon pitcher, and has not lost in his last seven starts. James Reeves came in with runners on the corners and two outs in the sixth and retired Christian Wolfe, the conference's leading hitter, on a fly out to left.
Reeves went 1 1/3 innings and allowed one hit and fanned two. Zach Sherrill worked a hitless eighth with a pair of strikeouts, extending his school record with his 42nd appearance of the year, and Ross White surrendered two hits and struck out one in the ninth.
Junior left-hander Logan Cribb will take the mound in Friday's 6 p.m. start against UNCG righty Max Povse. The regular season wraps up Saturday at 1 p.m., after which the seedings for the SoCon tournament will be determined.
College of Charleston 7, Georgia Southern 2
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. – Freshman Carl Wise tallied a career-high five RBIs to lead College of Charleston to a 7-2 win over Georgia Southern on Thursday.
The Cougars (29-24, 16-11) held Georgia Southern (25-28, 13-15) to just two runs despite allowing eight hits, as the CofC defense and pitching stranded eight Eagle runners.
Jake Zokan (4-2) picked up the win for CofC as he scattered five hits through the first 5 1/3 innings, allowing just one run. He struck out five batters and did not allow a walk. Derrick Smith allowed one run in two innings of relief, and Dre Watts earned his seventh save of the season, getting out of a jam in the eighth and pitching the ninth inning.
Wise blistered the ball all evening, knocking a solo home run to dead center field in his first at-bat. He finished with four hits, all of which drove in a total of five RBIs. His two-run double in the eighth inning with two outs added much-needed insurance to CofC’s 4-2 lead.
Blake Butler continued his hot hitting as he now has hits in 19 of his last 21 games. He tallied two singles and scored two runs. Morgan Phillips and Ben Boykin each tallied doubles, while Gunnar Heidt had two singles and an RBI.
Georgia Southern ace Justin Hess (4-6) suffered the loss as he gave up three runs in the first five innings, although he tallied nine strikeouts.
Chase Griffin had a double and a single for the Eagles, while local native Robbie Dodds and T.D. Davis each had RBIs.
All of CofC’s first three runs came by way of Wise and Butler. Wise homered in the first inning and drove home Butler in the third and fifth innings.
The Eagles cut the lead to 3-1 in the top of the sixth after a two-base wild pitch put Griffin at third and Davis drove him in with a sacrifice fly. The Cougars answered with their own sacrifice fly in the sixth frame when Welke drove in Phillips from third base, pushing it back to 4-1.
GSU made things interesting in the eighth inning with a single from Ben Morgan and another two-base wild pitch. Dodds singled him home with one out and then advanced to second on a passed ball. However, Watts came in to get out of the inning with consecutive strikeouts.
Charleston added insurance runs in the eighth inning when Devon Reed laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Boykin and Alex Pastorius to second and third. Wise drove both runners in with a two-out double to left field. Heidt added another run with a single to center field and the Cougars had an insurmountable 7-2 lead.
Charleston will play Georgia Southern again Friday at 2 p.m. at Patriots Point. Ryan West will be on the mound for the Cougars against GSU’s Sam Howard.
No. 29 Western Carolina 23, Appalachian State 5
BOONE, N.C. – Western Carolina scored six runs in the top of the first inning and never looked back on its way to a 23-5 win over Appalachian State in Thursday’s Southern Conference series opener at Beaver Field at Jim and Bettie Smith Stadium.
Western Carolina (37-17, 22-6 SoCon), the SoCon’s regular-season champion, led 12-0 before Appalachian State (27-21, 12-13 SoCon) plated its first run in the bottom of the third inning. Appalachian trailed by as many as 21 runs before scoring three in the bottom of the ninth to account for the final deficit. The 18-run defeat was the Mountaineers’ worst since a 24-2 loss to Elon on March 16, 2007.
WCU banged out 21 hits as a team and its third, fourth and fifth batters in the order (Julian Ridings, Tyler White and Jacob Hoyle) combined for 13 RBIs. The 29th-ranked Catamounts hit five home runs, including four by the Ridings-White-Hoyle trio, and had five doubles. White homered twice and had a double in his 4-for-6, four-RBI, four-run performance.
Eight different Mountaineers had hits, including Will Callaway, who extended his hitting streak to 23 games with an eighth-inning single. Callaway’s 23-game hitting streak is tied for the third-longest in Appalachian State history, just four games shy of Rand Smith’s school-record 27-game streak (2009).
The clubs resume their three-game SoCon series on Friday evening at Smith Stadium. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.
Furman 19, Dayton 3
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Chris Ohmstede belted a grand slam and matched a school record with seven RBIs, and Taylor Johnson went 4-for-5 and drove in five runs to power Furman past Dayton, 19-3, Thursday evening in the opening game of a three-game baseball series at Latham Stadium.
The victory was the fourth straight for Furman (30-23) and clinched the seventh 30-win season in program history.
Ohmstede, whose seven RBIs tied the Furman single game standard first set by Joey Rodgers in an 11-9 win over the College of Charleston in 2008, stroked a two-run double in a five-run Paladin first inning and belted his second grand slam of the season in the eighth inning to help Furman record its highest run total since a 19-2 victory over Davidson in 2006.
Johnson continued his recent torrid pace with a two-run home run in the first, a three-run double in the third, and singles in the fifth and sixth before exiting the game with the Paladins ahead 14-2.
Furman, which pounded out a season-high 21 hits, also got four hits from freshman Jordan Simpson and three hits and three runs from Alex Abrams.
The heavy lumber provided more than enough support for Paladin starting pitcher Nate Smith (6-4), who worked five innings, allowing a pair of unearned runs on six hits and two walks while striking out five.
The loss was charged to Dayton starter Noah Buetttgen (1-10), who was tagged for 11 runs, though only six were earned, on 13 hits over four innings.
The Paladins grabbed control of the contest early, striking for five runs in the first, highlighted by Johnson's two-run clout to left – his 10th of the season.
Furman scored twice in the second to make it 7-0 and then tacked on four more in the third on a Johnson three-run double and an RBI single by Greg Harrison for an 11-0 lead.
Jared Broughton went 3-for-3 to lead Dayton (11-38-1).
Friday's game is a 4 p.m. start.
Samford 14, Davidson 2 (game one)
Davidson 10, Samford 5 (game two)
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Samford baseball team split its doubleheader with Davidson on Thursday at Joe Lee Griffin Field. Samford won the first game, 14-2, but Davidson came back to win game two, 10-5.
The win in game one guaranteed Samford a spot in next week’s Southern Conference Championship, which will begin Wednesday in Greenville, S.C. Samford is now 27-27 overall and 12-15 in Southern Conference play. Davidson moved to 16-31 overall and 10-18 in league play.
In game one, Samford was led at the plate by Patrick McGavin, who went 3-for-5 with a double and four RBIs. Christiaan Durdaller went 3-for-4 with two RBIs. C.K. Irby and Tommy Corbin had two hits and two RBIs each. Zeth Stone drove in two runs in a 1-for-4 performance.
Eric Wright (5-3) pitched five innings, giving up two runs on four hits to pick up the win on the mound for Samford. Andres Gracia and Irby combined to pitch the final four innings to close out the win.
For Davidson in the first game, David Daniels went 2-for-5 at the plate. Ryan Lowe and Andrew Barna drove in a run each for the Wildcats in game one. Lowe (4-8) was also the starting pitcher for Davidson, tossing two innings, allowing five runs on two hits to take the loss.
Samford jumped on top early with two runs in the bottom of the first inning. Stone walked to lead off the inning and later scored on a wild pitch for the first run. Phillip Ervin singled with one out and later scored on a groundout by McGavin for a 2-0 Samford lead.
The Bulldogs added five runs in the third inning to make the score 7-0. Irby singled to drive in two runs, while McGavin, Drew McWhorter and Corbin drove in a run each to give Samford a seven-run lead.
Davidson got on the scoreboard with two runs in the top of the fourth inning. Lowe doubled to drive in the first run of the inning, and Barna drove in the inning’s final run on a sacrifice fly to cut the Samford lead to 7-2.
Samford plated five more runs in the seventh inning to make the score 12-2. McGavin and Durdaller drove in two runs each, while Stone drove in one run in the seventh for a 10-run Samford lead.
The Bulldogs finished the scoring for game one with two runs in the eighth inning to make the final score 14-2. Corbin singled to drive in Caleb Bryson for the first run of the inning, and Stone grounded out to first base, driving in Corbin for the game’s final run.
In game two, Samford was led by Irby, who went 2-for-4 at the plate. Durdaller, Bryson, Brandon Haarer and Richard Greene drove in a run each for the Bulldogs. McGavin (0-5) pitched three innings, giving up eight runs on seven hits to take the loss on the mound for Samford. Charles Terry and Sean Handlan also saw time on the mound in game two for the Bulldogs.
Davidson was led in game two by Nathan Becker, who went 4-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs. Barna went 3-for-5 with a home run and four RBIs. Lowe went 3-for-4 with an RBI for the Wildcats. Danny Mooney (6-4) pitched eight innings, giving up five runs, just four earned, on eight hits to earn the win on the mound for the Wildcats.
Davidson jumped on top early, plating four runs in the first inning and four more in the third for an 8-0 lead. Barna and Becker drove in two runs each in the first inning. In the third inning, Barna hit a two-run home run, Becker hit a solo homer and Lowe also drove in a run to give Davidson an eight-run lead.
The Wildcats extended their lead to 10-0 with two runs in the top of the seventh inning. Sam Foy singled to drive in Barna and Lowe to account for the two Wildcat runs in the seventh inning.
Samford put its first runs of game two on the scoreboard in the bottom of the seventh, plating three runs. Bryson, Haarer and Greene drove in a run each in the inning for Samford to cut the Davidson lead to 10-3.
The Bulldogs added two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to make the final score 10-5. Durdaller hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Stone for the first run of the eighth inning. The game’s final run was scored by Ervin when Corbin reached base on a Davidson error.
Samford and Davidson will wrap up their three-game series with a game Friday at 4 p.m. (CT) at Joe Lee Griffin Field.