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Citadel eliminates Western in SC baseball tournament
Citadel scored three runs in the top of the ninth Friday night to eliminate Western Carolina 4-2 in the losers’ bracket finals of the Southern Conference Tournament at Riley Park in Charleston, S.C.
WCU (33-27) led 2-1 entering the ninth, but Matt Covington’s RBI single tied the score. A run-scoring single by Sonny Meade put the Bulldogs on top, and Matt Matulia added an RBI double.
Western had two runners on base when the game ended.
Caleb McConnell pitched seven scoreless innings as Western Carolina handed Furman a 14-1 loss in the first round of the Southern Conference Baseball Tournament. – WCU photo by Mark Haskett
Justin Smith pitched 4.1 innings of scoreless relief for the win.
WCU closer Greg Holland (4-4) took the loss.
A throwing error allowed the Cats to score a run in the second.
Citadel tied it in the fourth on Brady Mashak’s RBI single.
Western loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth but managed just one run when Donnie Wilson hit into a double play.
Covington paced the Bulldogs with three hits. Meade and Matt Arnold both had two.
Barrett Shaft, Jonathan Greene, Trey McDaniel and Scott Ward all had two hits for Western.
WCU stays alive
Western erupted for seven runs in the top of the first Friday morning and stayed alive in the tourney with a 13-3 rout of Georgia Southern.
Blake Murphy had five hits, including three doubles, to tie a Southern Conference Tournament record, and the Cats pounded out 22 hits.
McDaniel added four hits, and Shaft had three.
Jason Haynes got things started in the first with a home run and capped the inning with an RBI single. Steven Strausbaugh delivered a sacrifice fly while McDaniel and Tim Hallam both singled in runs. Two more runs scored on errors.
McDaniel’s homer made it 8-0 in the fourth.
The Eagles cut the gap to 8-2 with runs in the fifth and sixth. Chris Hollis’ ground out drove in the run in the fifth, and Brett Pelfrey had a sacrifice fly in the sixth.
Western put the game away with four runs in the eighth to go up 12-2. McDaniel and Murphy drove in runs with a single and double, respectively, and Ward had a two-run double.
Pelfrey had an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth, and the Cats answered in the ninth on a run-scoring double by Andy John.
Tyler Sexton (8-6) pitched into the seventh for the win. Both runs he allowed were unearned.
Haynes, Greene and Wilson all had two hits.
Josh Lairisey, who didn’t get out of the first inning, took the loss.
Matt Miller, Mike Economos and Chris Shehan all had two hits for GSU.
Charleston wins
Nick Chigges pitched a four-hitter as College of Charleston blanked Western 1-0 last Thursday.
The Cougars scored the game’s only run in the top of the first on Jess Easterling’s RBI double.
Chigges walked five and struck out four.
WCU starter Bryan Tupper (5-2) took the loss.
Western’s best chance to score came in the seventh when Chigges walked the bases loaded with two outs but got a ground out to escape unscathed.
Alex Garabedian and Jedd Cordisco each had two hits for the Cougars.
Greene led the WCU offense with two hits.
Cats rout Furman
Caleb McConnell pitched seven shutout innings, and Strausbaugh drove in six runs while going three of four leading Western to a 14-1 rout of Furman in the tournament’s first round on May 24.
McConnell (2-5) allowed three hits while walking two and striking out one.
Strausbaugh, McDaniel and Hallam all had three hits, and Ward added two.
The Cats set the tone for the day in the top of the first when Strausbaugh blasted a three-run homer.
Haynes tripled in two runs in the fourth making it 5-0.
WCU broke the game open in the fifth with five runs to lead 10-0. McDaniel belted a three-run homer while Strausbaugh and Hallam had RBI singles.
McDaniel had a run-scoring single for an 11-0 margin in the sixth.
The Cats led 14-0 in the seventh after Hallam’s sacrifice fly and Strausbaugh’s two-run double.
The Paladins finally scored in the eighth on A.J. Davidiuk’s RBI single.
Furman starter Mason Smith took the loss.
Strausbaugh and Greene were both chosen first team all-conference, and Murphy was named to the second team.
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