May 28, 2010

Box Score |   

Charleston S.C. - Western Carolina's Ross Heffley scored on an error at the plate in the bottom of the 12th inning to cap a six-run rally as the Catamounts earned a 7-6 victory over No. 2 College of Charleston Thursday night, Friday morning at the 2010 Bennett Hofford Southern Conference Baseball Championship at Riley Park.

With the bases loaded and one out in the third extra frame, Cameron Dulling laced a ground ball to first base. However, Greg Blake's throw to the plate was off line and allowed Heffley to score the winning run from third after he had singled to open the frame. Tyler Kirkpatrick moved Heffley to within 90 feet of scoring with a double to the left field corner with Trevor Collias drawing a walk that loaded the bases for the second time in overtime.

With the victory - the most under third-year head coach Bobby Moranda - Western Carolina (36-19-1) earns a day off and will return to action Saturday at 9:00 am against the winner of Friday afternoon's contest between Appalachian State and College of Charleston (42-16). The win was also the 100th career win for Moranda at WCU.

"We talk about adversity all the time. Adversity is preparation for greatness. This game was the definition of adversity. For us to persevere, down six, and the bad breaks that we didn't execute in extra innings with men in scoring position. For us to overcome that shows me a lot about our character," said Moranda following the game.

Reliever Brandon Johnson (8-1) earned the win for WCU, scattering three hits and keeping the Cougars scoreless, striking out two in four innings of work. Johnson worked in relief of Jason Sullivan, who came in on the fifth as a reliever, pitching three and a third of three-hit, scoreless relief that enabled the Catamount bats to come alive in the middle innings.

Kyle Stewart earned a no-decision after fanning six against five walks in four innings in the start for WCU before giving way to Vance Chavis who struck out one in two-thirds of an inning.

The Cougars broke a scoreless deadlock in the top of the fourth inning, taking a 3-0 lead by capitalizing on three, one-out singles with a walk sandwiched in the middle. Jamie Holler singled to left field to score outfielder Baker Knox for CofC's first run. Then, two batters later, Cole Rakar hit a single to right center plating both Holler and Brewer for the three-run edge.

Charleston added three more runs in the fifth, with two coming on wild pitches and the other a result of an errant throw by Goulder to hand the Cougars a 6-0 advantage.

The Catamounts finally broke through against CofC starter David Peterson in the sixth inning. Having been held to one single through the first five innings, Matt Johns homered to left center, bringing in shortstop Austin Schultz who reached base after being hit by a pitch. The comeback continued one frame later as WCU trimmed to lead to three, 6-3 in the seventh when outfielder Trevor Collias scored on a sacrifice fly by fellow outfielder Dullnig.

In the bottom of eighth the Catamounts cut the game to two (6-4) when Johns tripled down the left field line and was brought home on a single to left center by Heffley. WCU later used ninth-inning magic to tie the game at six. With the bases loaded, White singled to left field scoring Goulder and Collias to force extra innings.

Heffley led the Catamounts, going 3-for-5 at the plate with one RBI and the game-winning run. Johns went 2-for-5 with two RBIs on his second home run in as many days, while White also brought in two runs. Collias scored twice for WCU, doubling in the seventh inning to extend his SoCon Tournament hit streak to five-straight games over the past two seasons.

Dre Watts (0-1) took the loss for the Cougars, pitching 2.1 innings out of the bullpen and surrendering one unearned run on two hits. Peterson limited WCU to four runs on five hits through eight solid innings before reliever Heath Hembree was summonsed from the bullpen in the ninth. He promptly hit the first two batters he face before a Dullnig single loaded the bases ahead of White's two-RBI single to knot the game.

Leading the Cougars was catcher Rob Kral, who hit 3-for-7. Outfielder Cole Rakar went 2-for-7 with two RBIs. Shortstop Jamie Holler also registered two hits for CofC.

All told, CofC committed three errors to WCU's two with the Cougars stranding 15 runners on base, while the Catamounts left eight.

The Catamount Sports Network will provide coverage of Saturday's game with first pitch slated for 9:00 am and air time at 8:45 am online at CatamountSports.com.

Additional Post-Game Notes:
- Last extra inning game in SoCon Tournament action was on May 20, 2008 when the Catamounts defeated Davidson, 11-10, in 12 innings in the opening round game;

- Prior to Thursday, the last time WCU had won back-to-back games in the Southern Conference Tournament was 2004 when the Catamounts won three-straight before consecutive losses to The Citadel ended the run.