NGU Skyliner

Billy Cannada
Staff Writer

The North Greenville baseball team is maintaining its strong start as it has now moved to 7-2 on the season.

“People don’t realize that this team is a legitimate NCCAA/ NCAA Division II college baseball program, and our goal is to make people aware of what we can do,” said outfielder Adam Taylor, freshman business administration.

North Greenville began the week by splitting a double-header with Anderson University on Feb. 16. The Crusaders produced some strong offense that propelled them to a 6-3 win in the first game. Randy Stegall, senior business, and Dayton Lupton, senior sport management, had the hot bats for the Crusaders, each going 3-3 on the day.

Anderson would be too much in the second game of the double-header, putting up 10 runs to down the crusaders 10-3. North Greenville gave up five quick runs in the second inning and they were unable to put runs on the board, which gave Anderson University a big lead.

“We played well and came up with a good win in the first game [against Anderson],” said Lupton. “They just capitalized on a few situations, which allowed them to pull out a win in the second game.”

The Crusaders bounced back quickly from their loss to Anderson, as they were able to sweep a three-game weekend series with Southern Wesleyan University.

North Greenville began the series on Feb. 19 with a dominating 16-7 win over the Warriors. Taylor had the hot bat for the Crusaders, hitting a grand slam in the fifth inning. Drew Provence, sophomore business administration, was on the mound for the Crusaders, as he moved his record to 2-0 as a starting pitcher.

The Crusaders continued their series with the Warriors by sweeping a double-header on Feb. 20. Neither contest was very close, as the Crusaders took the first game 16-4 and the second 14-9. Overall, North Greenville outscored Southern Wesleyan 46-20 in the series.

“Our team is very good this year,” said Lupton. “We have a lot of depth and we surely showed it this weekend.”

“We are really good right now but we could be so much better, and I expect that we will improve in every aspect of the game as the season continues. We just have to stay focused,” said Lupton.

The Crusaders will take the diamond again today at 2 p.m. in a rematch with Anderson University.

Tags: Spring 2010, Vol. 110 - Issue 5

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 24th, 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.