April 16, 2010

Box Score

Elon, N.C. - Phoenix starting pitcher Jimmy Reyes tossed a three-hit, complete-game shutout as Elon won its fifth-straight over Western Carolina, 3-0, in the Southern Conference series opener Friday night at Latham Park. The junior left-hander fanned nine in posting a career-high nine innings pitched in the win.

Western Carolina fell to 22-10-1 overall and 5-7-1 in SoCon play after dropping its second-straight in league play. Elon improved to 24-12 overall and 10-6 in league action.

Game two of the three-game conference series is set for 4:00 pm on Saturday afternoon. Catamount Sports Network coverage of the game will begin at 3:45 pm with streaming audio online through Stretch Internet at CatamountSports.com.

Reyes (5-3) faced 32 batters during the first complete game shutout by an Elon pitcher since Steven Hensley accomplished the task in an 8-0 win at Wofford on April 8, 2006. He worked around two walks to strand Catamount runners overall.

WCU sophomore Ross Heffley, seeing his first action in a week after suffering a strained hamstring in the series opener against Wofford, returned to the WCU lineup and notched two of the Catamounts' three hits in the loss. Junior Matt Johns had his 12-game hitting streak snapped, finishing 0-for-4.

Starter Jason Sullivan (4-2) struggled in the loss and was chased after just one complete inning and facing two batters in the second inning. Elon's Scott Riddle belted a solo home run to left centerfield to give the Phoenix a 1-0 lead with Sullivan pulled after one pitch to the next batter. Freshman Taylor Sandefur worked four and a third in relief, surrendering a second run in the second inning after four issuing four walks. All told, the Mechanicsville, Va., native allowed six free passes, scattering three hits and limiting the Phoenix to the one run.

Relievers Andrew Chilcoat, Mat Batts and Kyle Stewart combined for the final two and two thirds innings with Chilcoat allowing one run on one hit in the seventh inning while the latter two both struck out two.

The Catamount pitching staff, despite handing out 10 walks, managed to strand 10 Phoenix base runners to keep the game within striking distance. Elon had six players post one-hit nights as the Phoenix were held to six hits.

WCU's best opportunities offensively came in the third and sixth innings against Reyes. In the third inning, Tyler White led off with a single to centerfield but was erased on a fielder's choice after Austin Schultz laced one up the middle where Reyes was able to knock it down and throw to second for the force play. Schultz swiped second base ahead of Cameron Dullnig being hit by a pitch to give the Catamounts two base runners with two outs.

However, while attempting a double-steal, Schultz was caught at third to end the threat.

In the sixth inning, the Catamounts again put two men on base as Dylan de Graaf smoked a grounder past Elon third baseman, Ben Scott, on a play that was scored as an error with Tyler Kirkpatrick drawing a two-out walk to put runners at the corners. However, catcher Ollie Goulder flew out on a hard-hit ball to right to strand the two runners.