Box Score May 25, 2005
Final Stats
Charleston, S.C. -
Western Carolina junior Brian McCullen pitched his first career complete game to lead his third-seeded Catamounts to a 6-1 over sixth-seed Citadel Wednesday night in the opening round of the Southern Conference Tournament at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.
McCullen only allowed seven hits, all singles, to improve to 7-3 on the season, walking three and striking out three. With the score 3-1 in WCU's favor in the top of the sixth, McCullen used a caught stealing to retire nine eight straight over the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. After allowing back-to-back, one-out hits in the eighth, McCullen than got a pop out and worked a 1-2-3 inning in the ninth to close out the contest.
While McCullen was in control on the mound, Trey McDaniel and Jared Greenwood provided the offense. McDaniel was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and Greenwood was 1-for-2 with a key two-run double in the sixth.
Western threatened in the first, loading the bases with two outs, but came up empty. Three innings later, Western broke the scoreless tie with three runs on three hits in the bottom of the fourth. Nate Hall got things going with a one-out walk and moved to third on McDaniel's single to right, which was the Cats' first hit of the evening. Jonathan Greene plated Hall with a single to left and McDaniel scored on Blake Murphy's single to center. A walk to Chris Davis would load the bases and Tim Hallam capped the inning with a sacrifice fly to center.
The Citadel also had some success getting runners on early in the game, but was turned away in the first four innings thanks to solid defense by the Catamounts. In the top of the fifth with two outs and Chance Smith on third, the Bulldogs would finally break through as Chris Ard singled through the left side, scoring Smith and making it a 3-1 game.
In the sixth, Western padded its advantage with three runs to make the score 6-1. McDaniel had a leadoff single and, after two strikeouts, would advance to second on a wild pitch. Davis had an infield single. However, on the attempted play at first, McDaniel never broke stride, scoring from second despite a close play at the plate. A single by Hallam and a fielding error on the play put runners on second and third, setting up a two-run double by Greenwood.
Bulldog starter Ryan Owens (6-6) suffered the loss, allowing six hits and five runs with five walks and five strikeouts.
In addition to McDaniel and Greenwood, was led by Shaft, who had two hits despite missing the last four regular-season games with a stress fracture on his foot, while Davis, Hallam and Greene each added an RBI.
Western Carolina will face second-seed Georgia Southern Thursday night at approximately 7:30 pm.
