April 2, 2009

Box Score

Asheville, N.C. - Kyle Stewart did not allow a base hit through the first five and two-thirds of his career-best seven innings pitched Wednesday night as he and Jason Sullivan combined to toss a three-hit shutout for Western Carolina over mountain-rival UNC Asheville at McCormick Field.

Western Carolina (18-6) pounded out 13 base hits and scored multiple runs in four separate frames - including six in the final two alone - to down the Bulldogs, 11-0, marking the fifth-straight win in the series dating back to the 2007 season.

Stewart tied his career-high with seven strikeouts in the longest outing of his young collegiate career. The Onalaska, Wisc., native worked around a pair of walks in the third, as well as an error and hit batsman in the fourth in keeping the Bulldogs off the scoreboard. With one aboard on his third walk of the game in the sixth, the right-hander surrendered a bouncing ball up the middle by Bulldog right fielder Reed Kreiser to break-up the no-hitter.

UNCA (5-23) managed just one additional hit off of Stewart - a bunt single that hugged the third-base line by third baseman Jordan Lurie. He gave way to Sullivan in the bottom of the eighth for the final two innings, striking out a pair while allowing a lone single to left field.

Offensively for Western, junior Nick Liles reached base in all six plate appearances, officially going 2-for-2 with a pair of singles and four walks. He also stole one of WCU's five bases on the day. Freshman Ross Heffley tallied a team-best three hits on a 3-for-6 performance with three RBI including two in the three-run eighth inning.

Juniors Brent Greer and Trevor Collias round out the four Catamounts with multi-hit games on Wednesday, with Collias legging out his second triple of the season to accompany a stolen base.

Senior J.C. Lyons plated two on a first inning single for a 1-for-4 showing, while late-inning replacement, classmate Mitchell Hatley, drove in two on a single through the right side in the ninth. Hatley also added a sacrifice bunt in the win while Lyons swiped a team-best two bases.

Western Carolina took the lead for good in the home half of the first inning. Back-to-back singles by Liles and Heffley, and a successful sacrifice bunt by Stephen Notaro, put runners in scoring position for Lyons who laced two-RBI single to left with the bases loaded to give the Catamounts a 2-0 lead.

The two-run advantage stood until the fifth when Collias tripled to straight-away center field ahead of Liles who delivered an RBI single up the middle to make it 3-0. Greer and Matt Johns plated two more runs for a 5-0 Catamount lead through five innings.

Western added three runs in the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, to pull out the win.

For the Bulldogs, starter Justin Schumer (0-5) was saddled with the loss after allowing five runs - four earned - on eight hits, three walks and four strikeouts. Matt Dalby tossed two and a third, with reliever Dan Weller surrendering two earned runs on one hit in just one-third of an inning. Billy Enright gave up the final three runs in the tally on two hits with a pair of walks and a strikeout.

Kreiser, Lurie and first-baseman Mike Vaughn recorded the three Bulldog hits in the losing effort.

Western Carolina, which will play its next five games out of conference, opens a three-game set against BYU on Thursday night at Childress Field / Hennon Stadium. First pitch for the first two games is set for 6:00 pm, with Saturday's finale slated for a 2:00 pm first pitch.