Mercer, Western Carolina through to SoCon semis

No. 1 Mercer 6, No. 4 Furman 1

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Top-seeded Mercer got a complete-game gem from freshman Kevin Coulter and a two-run home run from SoCon Player of the Year Kyle Lewis as it cruised to a 6-1 win over No. 4 seed Furman at the Southern Conference Baseball Championship at Fluor Field on Thursday.

The Bears earned an off day and a date with either No. 2 seed Western Carolina or No. 6 seed Samford on Saturday at noon. The Paladins will face No. 3 seed UNCG in an elimination contest Friday at 7 p.m.

Coulter (8-3) turned in one of the best games of his young career, scattering seven hits and allowing just one run. He struck out one and walked one to keep pace with ETSU’s Jamin McCann for second in the SoCon with eight wins. The complete game was Mercer’s first of the season.

After Danny Edgeworth’s one-out single, Lewis hit an opposite-field homer off the top of the wall down the line in right in the bottom of the first to give Coulter all the run support he would need.

The Bears added another run on Trey Truitt’s RBI double in the fourth and made it a 4-0 game on Ryan Hagan’s RBI sacrifice bunt in the fifth.

Furman broke up Coulter’s shutout in the top of the sixth inning, as Sims Griffith singled with one out and went to third on Jake Crawford’s tailing double down the right-field line before coming home on a Sky Overton groundout.

Mercer put the game out of reach in the eighth, scoring two more runs without the benefit of a hit. Two walks and a hit batter loaded the bases with one out before Hagan scored on a wild pitch. Another hit batter reloaded the bases, and after Furman reliever Ryan Griffith got a strikeout for the second out of the inning, Lewis drew a bases-loaded walk to make it a 6-1 contest. The Bears would leave the bases loaded, as Nolan Mullen came out of the bullpen to get a strikeout for the final out.

Lewis’ second walk of the day was his 63rd of the season, tying him for third in a single season in SoCon history with The Citadel’s Dan McDonnell (1992). Lewis’ home run was his 19th of the season, tying him for the league lead and putting him two-thirds of the way to winning the SoCon’s first Triple Crown since 1975. The junior outfielder currently leads the SoCon with a .408 average and is second in RBIs with 69, just three back of Samford’s Heath Quinn.

Edgeworth had two hits for the Bears, while Lewis reached base three times, had three RBIs and scored twice.

For the Paladins, Sims Griffith, Crawford and Griffin Davis had two hits each.

Matthew Quarles, the first of five Furman pitchers on the day, suffered the loss to fall to 7-7 on the year. He allowed four runs on seven hits and five walks in 5 1/3 innings. He struck out five.

 

No. 2 Western Carolina 14, No. 6 Samford 4

GREENVILLE, S.C. – A seven-run sixth inning turned a tie game into a lopsided affair as No. 2 seed Western Carolina raced past No. 6 seed Samford, 14-4, in Thursday’s late game at the Southern Conference Baseball Championship at Fluor Field.

The Catamounts (27-28) move on to Saturday’s semifinals, where they will face No. 1 seed Mercer at noon. The Bulldogs (33-25) drop into the losers’ bracket and will face No. 5 seed ETSU in an elimination game Friday at 3:30 p.m.

The teams were tied at 3 heading into the sixth, but WCU would send 12 batters to the plate in the frame pull away. The Catamounts’ first six batters in the inning reached, with Bryce Bowman and J.D. Long each recording two-run singles in the rally before Samford’s third pitcher of the inning, Jared Brasher, struck out the first batter he faced to stop the onslaught. WCU recorded seven of its 18 hits in the sixth, all of them singles, with Danny Bermudez and Garrett Brown also notching run-scoring base knocks.

The floodgates wide open, the Catamounts would add single runs in the seventh and eighth and two runs in the ninth to salt the game away.

Samford led 3-2 after three innings despite having just one hit to that point. A pair of hit batters and a Western Carolina throwing error on a double steal let T.J. Dixon and Hunter Swilling score in the first inning without the benefit of a hit, and Danny Rodriguez’s sacrifice fly in the third came after another hit batter, a walk and a fielder’s choice.

Kramer Ferrell had RBI singles in the first and third innings and Long hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth as the Catamounts kept pace with Samford in the early going.

Six Western Carolina players recorded multiple hits in the contest, with Matt Smith leading the way with a triple and three singles. Brett Pope had three hits and scored a game-high three runs, while Long led the way with three RBIs on two hits and a sacrifice fly.

The offensive fireworks overshadowed impressive pitching performances from WCU starter Brendan Nail (4-6) and reliever Dylan Biumi. The pair combined to limit the Bulldogs to just four hits, with Nail surrendering four runs (two earned) on three hits in five innings and Biumi picking up his first save of the season with four innings of one-hit, scoreless relief.

Samford’s Rodriguez had two of the Bulldogs’ four hits.

The loss went to Samford reliever Caleb Maggio (0-1), who was tagged for six runs on five hits and two walks in an inning of work.

May 24 (Tuesday)
SoCon Championship (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 1: #8 The Citadel 3, #9 VMI 2 (10 innings)

May 25 (Wednesday)
SoCon Championship (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 2: #4 Furman 3, #5 ETSU 0
Game 3: #1 Mercer 13, #8 The Citadel 1 (7 innings)
Game 4: #2 Western Carolina 10, #7 Wofford 9
Game 5: #6 Samford 8, #3 UNCG 5

May 26 (Thursday)
SoCon Championship (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 6: #5 ETSU 4, #8 The Citadel 2
Game 7: #3 UNCG 9, #7 Wofford 6
Game 8: #1 Mercer 6, #4 Furman 1
Game 9: #2 Western Carolina 14, #6 Samford 4

May 27 (Friday)
SoCon Championship (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 10: #5 ETSU vs. #6 Samford 3:30 p.m.
Game 11: #3 UNCG vs. #4 Furman 7 p.m.

May 28 (Saturday)
SoCon Championship (SDN)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 12: #1 Mercer vs. #2 Western Carolina 12 p.m.
Game 13: Winner Game 10 vs. Winner Game 11 3:30 p.m.
Game 14: Winner Game 13 vs. Loser Game 12 7 p.m.

May 29 (Sunday)
SoCon Championship (ESPN3)
(Fluor Field; Greenville, S.C.)
Game 15: Winner Game 12 vs. Winner Game 14 1 p.m.
^Game 16: Winner Game 15 vs. Loser Game 15 60 minutes after Game 15

^ if necessary

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