March 7, 2008

Box Score

Houston, Texas - Western Carolina, behind the strength of eight runs in the first three innings, hung on to defeat the Creighton Bluejays, 11-8, Friday afternoon in the second game of the Rice Invitational in Houston, Texas. The Catamounts connected on a season-high 17 hits in the game, including a pair of two-run home runs.

In the bottom of the first, junior J.C. Lyons doubled off the wall in right field, bringing home freshman Matt Johns for the first run of the game. It was Lyons' 13th RBI of the season, good for tops on the team. After a pair of walks loaded up the bases, sophomore Dylan de Graaf singled to the left side of the infield, scoring a pair of Catamounts, pushing the score to 3-0.

The Cats (4-6) were able to get on the board again in the second inning, on sophomore Nick Liles' first home run of the season, a line drive that caught a gust of the day's 25-mile-per-hour wind blowing out into left field, and rode it over the fence, scoring Liles and Jason Haynes, who had walked to lead off the inning. The two runs pushed the WCU lead to four, 5-1.

Creighton (6-3) plated two runs in the top of the third inning courtesy of a pair of base hits to cut the WCU lead to two, but Chris Masters was able to get the next batter to fly out to right field to end the inning.

WCU answered in their half of the third when sophomore Tyler Kirkpatrick turned on a 1-0 fastball, putting it on top of the hill behind the left field wall, and giving the Catamounts a four-run lead. It was Kirkpatrick's third home run of the season, and his eighth RBI. He now holds the second-highest total on the team in both statistics. After Haynes singled following the home run, Liles slapped a hit through the right side of the infield to score Haynes for his second run of the day.

The five-run lead was short-lived, however. In the top of the fourth, a bases-clearing double by Steve Winkelman brought the Bluejays back within two, at 8-6. Masters again dodged any further damage, ending the inning on a bases-loaded fly out to deep center field.

After their first two scoreless innings of the game, the Catamounts extended their lead in the bottom of the sixth. Following a Blake Murphy long fly ball out, Shaft was hit by a pitch, and then de Graaf walked, the first at bat all day he didn't record a hit. After a wild pitch moved both of the runners, Kirkpatrick knocked in his third run of the game on a sacrifice fly, followed by a single by Shaft that scored de Graaf, giving Western a 10-7 lead.

Freshman Brandon Johnson picked up his first career victory on the day, pitching two relief innings and only allowing one run on a single hit. Junior Mike Tavernier was credited with the save after throwing two shut out innings, striking out three and only giving up a one hit. Masters finished the game after throwing for the first four innings and allowing six runs on eight hits, and striking out three. Freshman Geoff Turner came on in the fifth and allowed one run on two hits.

The bottom of the Catamount lineup proved to be the driving force behind the team's offensive explosion in the game. Western's 7-8-9 hitters - de Graaf, Kirkpatrick, and Haynes - went a combined 8-for-11 in the contest, including six of the team's 10 RBIs, and scored five runs.

Haynes led the team in hits, going a perfect 4-for-4 on the day. Liles and de Graaf both connected on three base hits, followed by Johns and Lyons with two, with Brent Greer, Shaft, and Kirkpatrick all adding one hit. Every WCU batter reached bases on the day, with Murphy drawing two walks in his five at bats, and now has a team-high ten on the year.

Western snapped a three-game losing slide with the win against Creighton, who had its own five-game winning streak broken. WCU is now 1-1 on the weekend, with one game remaining, and ran their record to 4-0 when leading after six innings.

The Catamounts will finish out their trip to Houston with a matchup against the nationally-ranked Rice Owls, tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. Central Time. Fans can follow all the action on CatamountSports.com courtesy of GameTracker.