Offense heating up as Crusader baseball plays four games in two days
Posted by The Skyliner on April 15th, 2009Cory Guinn
Staff Writer
The Crusader baseball team continued their four game road trip on April 8 when they traveled to Jefferson City, Tenn., to take on Carson-Newman University in a doubleheader. NGU split the two game series winning the first game 9-4 but losing the second game 10-3.
In the first game, Devin Vance, sophomore business, had his second strong outing in a row pitching a complete game allowing only five hits and striking out five batters. Anthony Foulk, freshman sports management, led the offense going 3-for-4 including two doubles and driving in three runs. Tyler Callicutt, junior accounting, had a double and three RBIs in the game while Chris Harbit, sophomore biology, hit his second homerun of the season and Perry Foster, sophomore business administration, drove in two runs.
“The main key for our team for getting consistent hitting is that we have to be mentally focused and want it more than the other team.” Foster said of the team’s offense in game one. “Against Carson-Newman we were prepared and we had it in our heads that they were not going to beat us and it paid off.”
The Eagles scored four runs in the first inning and led the whole way for a victory in game two. Justin Williamson, sophomore business, was the outstanding pitcher for the Crusaders pitching 1 1/3 innings and only allowing one hit. At the plate, Harbit finished the game 2-for-2 and Dylan Fulk, freshman education, went 1-for-3 with a double and two RBIs.
The Brevard Tornados pounded 16 hits and scored 13 runs to take game one of a doubleheader with North Greenville 13-4, and then held off a last inning rally by the Crusaders to sweep the series with a 7-6 win in game on April 11 at Ashmore Field in Tigerville.
NGU was unable to stop the Tornados from putting together big innings on offense.
Brevard scored six runs in the first inning and five in the fifth and led the whole way despite 12 hits from the Crusaders. Rand Stegall, junior business, finished the game 2-for-4, including a double, and one RBI. Jacob Goetze, freshman business management, and Cory Hinton, junior sports management, each went 2-for-3 at the plate and knocked in one run apiece.
Game two was a much closer affair as each team went back and forth for much of the game. The game was tied at four runs each until the sixth inning when North Greenville committed two costly fielding errors and Brevard went ahead by three runs. NGU made a late game rally by scoring two runs in the bottom of the inning but came up short. Dayton Lupton, junior sports management, led the offense by going 2-for-4 at the plate including a home run and a double, adding four RBIs. Stegall finished 2-for-3 with a double, two RBI’s and two runs scored.
The Crusaders traveled to Tusculum, Tenn., yesterday to play a doubleheader against Tusculum College. The team’s next game will be on the road on April 21 against Mars Hill.