April 12, 2009

Box Score

Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina committed six errors leading to five unearned runs as Georgia Southern took the best-of-three Southern Conference series with a 10-5 win Sunday afternoon at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium.

Western Carolina has lost seven of the last eight in the overall series with the Eagles, including dropping the series each of the past two seasons. The Catamounts have also faltered in six of their last eight games overall on the year to fall to 20-12, 9-5 in league play. Georgia Southern moved to 24-9 on the year, 9-4 in the league to leap-frog WCU in the standings to second place behind league-leader, Elon, which swept the College of Charleston this weekend.

Georgia Southern climbed on top with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the first inning. With two outs, a routine ground ball through the left side made its way past Ross Heffley at third allowing the first run to come home and the inning to continue. Two batters later, Roman Grimaldi laid down a bunt single to plate the second run for the 2-0 advantage.

Western responded, though, with a two-spot of its own in the home half of the second inning to knot the game at two apiece. A bases loaded sacrifice fly by Trevor Collias scored J.C. Lyons to cut the Eagle lead in half, 2-1. The next batter, Dylan de Graaf, laced a two-out single up the middle to plate Mitchell Hatley to tie the game.

Yet, Georgia Southern capitalized on four base hits and another costly Catamount error in a five-run third inning to regain the lead. The Eagles scored one on a Grimaldi sacrifice fly to right, with Ty Wright rapping a two-RBI double to left to push across the third run ahead of the throwing error at second by Nick Liles that extended the inning and allowed two additional runs to cross the dish.

WCU added a single-run on an RBI ground out by de Graaf, with Brent Greer blasting a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh to close the gap to four, 9-5, entering the latter frames. However, the Eagles manufactured a run in the ninth to provide the five-run difference, with the Catamounts putting two on in the ninth before grounding into a game-ending 6-4-3 double-play.

Four Catamounts posted two-hit games as Collias finished 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI, with Heffley and Hatley each going 2-for-4 at the plate. Greer finished 2-for-5 with the game's lone long ball.

Mike Tavernier (2-3) suffered the loss after being chased in the sixth after five official innings of work. He allowed eight runs - only three of which were earned - on 11 hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Brandon Johnson tossed two innings of relief work, surrendering one earned run on one base hit, which was a double and fanning one. Closer Daniel Ottone pitched the final two innings of one-run, two-hit relief with a walk and a strikeout.

Wright led the Eagles with a 5-for-6 game including scoring four runs with two RBI. Eric Phillips went 4-for-6 with two doubles and a pair of runs driven in, while Will Southwell finished 2-for-4 at the plate in the win.

Starting pitcher Matt Murray (2-2) worked five solid innings, scattering six base hits and three runs, only one of which was earned. He pitched around two walks with a pair of strikeouts before giving way to the bullpen. Colin Snow, Kyle Kamppi and Dexter Bobo combined to toss the final four frames, allowing three hits with Kamppi surrendering the two runs on the home run by Greer.

Western will host nationally-ranked Clemson in the front-end of a home-and-home series this Tuesday night at 6:00 pm at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium before traveling to Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Wednesday night. The Catamounts will then return home to host Samford in SoCon action on April 17-19.