NGU Skyliner

Billy Cannada
Staff Writer

Senior third baseman Dayton Lupton gets ready to swing at a pitch on Friday, Feb. 12 against the Senators of Davis & Elkins College. The Crusaders defeated the Senators 10-1 behind the pitching of sophomore Drew Provence who had 12 strikeouts in the game. Lupton finished the game 2-4 from the plate with two RBI and also scored a run. The Crusaders are now 3-1, the team’s best start in four years. (photo by Gabe Franco)

The North Greenville baseball team dropped its first road test of the season to Limestone University 7-5 on Feb. 10, but on Feb. 12 the team was able to rebound with a 10-1 rout at home over Davis and Elkins.

The Crusader’s first loss of the season came against Limestone College, when they were unable to mount a rally in the ninth inning. The pitching staff for the Crusaders was not able to hold off the hot bats of Limestone as Mark Benjamin, junior business administration, gave up three earned runs and nine hits.  John Reinholz, freshman undecided, was unable to provide much relief, giving up another four runs out of the bullpen. The biggest pitfall for the Crusaders, however, was execution as they left a total of 10 runners on base.

“We just made some mistakes [against Limestone] that you really can’t afford to make on the road,” said head coach Travis Henson. “We left a few runners on base early and had some walks that really hurt us there at the end.”

Offensively, the Crusaders were led by Anthony Foulk, sophomore sport management, who went 2-5 with two RBI, and Dayton Lupton, senior sport management, who went 2-4 and also had two RBI.

The Crusaders were not going to stay down for long, as they were able to get another strong performance from their ace Drew Provence, freshman business administration, in a nine run win against Davis and Elkins.

“Drew is a great performer,” said Henson. “He’s off to a great start and it’s a testament to his work ethic and his talent and ability.”

Provence threw a shutout through six innings and had a staggering 12 strikeouts in the contest. Tyler Callicutt, junior accounting, was the big hitter for the Crusaders 1-3 with three runs batted in. Lupton was also a big contributor on offense, finishing 2-4 with two RBI and also scored a run in the game. Foulk, Adam Taylor, freshman undecided, and Markus Duckworth, sophomore social studies education, each finished the game with one run batted in.

“We backed up our pitching with some good support,” said Henson. “Our team has a lot of confidence when we have Drew on the mound and that carried over to our offense as well.”

“We just need to take advantage of situations and opportunities when we get them,” said Henson.

North Greenville played a double header against Anderson University yesterday and will take the field again at Southern Wesleyan University on Friday at 5 p.m.

Tags: Spring 2010, Vol. 110 - Issue 4

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010 and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.