Saturday, February 16, 2008
LENOIR-RHYNE SWEEPS NO. 6 TUSCULUM BASEBALL
HICKORY, N.C.
--- The Lenoir-Rhyne College baseball
Team picked up its first two wins of the year with a doubleheader sweep of No.
6 Tusculum College, 1-0 and 7-6, in South Atlantic Conference action Saturday
afternoon at Bears Field.
Game One – Lenoir-Rhyne 1, Tusculum 0
Freshman Brandon Padgett (Statesville, N.C./UNC Wilmington) pitched 8.2
innings of scoreless baseball while senior Josh Keller (Claremont,
N.C./Methodist Coll.) got the final out for the save in the Bears’ first win
for 2008.
Padgett (1-0) allowed seven hits to go along with five
strikeouts while Keller notched his first save of the season.
Lenoir-Rhyne scored the lone run of the game in the
seventh inning when freshman outfielder Stephen Andrews’ (Winston-Salem,
N.C./Mount Tabor HS) RBI single plated sophomore first baseman Zac Glass (Salisbury, N.C./Salisbury HS).
Padgett out-dueled Tusculum’s Raymond Ruggles (Newport, Tenn.), who
fell to 1-1 despite allowing just one run and striking out nine in going the
distance.
Game Two – Lenoir-Rhyne 7, Tusculum 6
L-R rallied from a 4-0 deficit to complete the sweep when sophomore outfielder Evan
Taylor (Charlotte, N.C./Independence HS) drew a bases-loaded walk in the
bottom of the seventh inning to win.
Tusculum’s Christian Rosa (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico) hit
a two-run double in the third inning to help the Pioneers stake themselves to a
four-run advantage before Lenoir-Rhyne broke through with six runs in the
bottom of the sixth. Taylor’s two-run single highlighted the frame.
The Pioneers rallied with two runs in the top of the
seventh inning to tie the contest with Matt
Webb’s (Duluth, Ga.) RBI hit tying the score at six before the Bears ended
the game in the bottom of the frame.
Taylor drove in three runs while senior outfielder Mark
Drucker (Boca Raton, Fla./Indian
River CC) added two hits and two runs scored including the game winner.
Rosa had two hits and three RBI for Tusculum, who saw
its five-game winning streak snapped. L-R
also ended a 13-game losing streak at the hands of the Pioneers.
Keller (1-1) picked up the win while Tusculum’s Rob Currie (St. Charles, Ill.) fell to
0-1 with the loss.
The two teams conclude the weekend series with a
single game Sunday at 1 p.m.
- TC -