May 27, 2011

Box Score

Photo Gallery via the Southern Conference

Charleston, S.C. - Georgia Southern's Andy Moye silenced the Catamount bats on Thursday night, limiting Western Carolina to one run on three hits as the Eagles dropped WCU into the loser's bracket with a 12-1 win in the second round of the 2011 Southern Conference Baseball Championship at Riley Park. Moye pitched around seven walks with three strikeouts in eight innings while the GSU offense rapped out 14 hits to score the victory.

Western Carolina (23-30-1) will face No. 5 College of Charleston at 7 pm in an elimination game on Friday night for a chance at a rematch on Saturday afternoon against Georgia Southern. The Eagles (34-23) move one win away from the SoCon Championship game and will have tomorrow off before returning to the diamond Saturday at 1 pm.

Friday night's game between WCU and CofC will be broadcast on the Catamount Sports Network and can be heard online at www.CatamountSports.com. Charleston won all three games against the Catamounts during the regular season at Patriot's Point after WCU took three of the four meetings one year ago including the meeting in the second round of the SoCon tournament.

Moye (7-1) picked up the win on eight innings of work, surrendering three of WCU's four hits and one earned run with three strikeouts and eight walks on 125 pitches.

WCU freshman Jordan Smith was saddled with the loss for the Catamounts to fall to 6-7. Smith pitched 4.2 innings and gave up five runs, four earned, on seven hits and five walks while striking out two Eagles.

The two pitching staffs combined for 19 walks including 11 by the Catamount hurlers.

Georgia Southern connected on 14 hits as a team, led by Eric Phillips 3-for-4 night and Steve Cochran's 3-for-6 performance. Phillips scored two runs and knocked in two while Cochran had two RBI on the evening. Despite just registering two official at bats, GSU centerfielder Shawn Payne scored five runs for the Eagles, tying the SoCon tournament record for runs scored by an individual in a game.

Western Carolina's offense scratched out only four hits on the game by four different individuals. Freshman Aaron Attaway finished 1-for-1 with the only Catamount RBI while classmate Dykota Spiess recorded a pinch hit double before taking over in right field.

Georgia Southern plated a run in the first inning as Payne drew a walk before swiping the first of three stolen bases on the game. Consecutive ground outs drove him home for the early, 1-0, lead. The Eagles followed with two more runs in the third and fourth innings each to lead 5-0 early. Contributing to the Eagles' runs in the beginning innings were Victor Roache with an RBI and Steve Cochrane with two RBIs.

The Eagles would add three more in the seventh inning when Phillips hit a bases loaded RBI single followed by a two-RBI single from Roache.

Western Carolina would eventually breakthrough in the bottom half of seventh when Attaway's sacrifice fly to centerfield drove home Luke Gragg for the single Catamount run of the game.

Georgia Southern added insurance from a Phillips RBI triple in the top of ninth to stretch it lead to 9-1. Phillips would come around to score on a wild pitch to push the Eagle run total to double-digits. After two more runs, the Eagles' scoring would conclude at 12.