WILSON, N.C.-The Barton College baseball team scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to upset No. 9 nationally ranked Kutztown University 4-3 in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader. The Golden Bears won the nightcap 17-4 to earn the split at historic Fleming Stadium.
Barton (1-2) picked up its first win of the season. Kutztown (1-1) – a 2010 NCAA Division II National Championship Finals participant – opened up its season Saturday. The Bulldogs and Golden Bears will cap the four-game weekend series with another double dip beginning at Noon Sunday at Barton's Nixon Field.
GAME ONE: Barton 4, #9 Kutztown 3 (8 innings)
Freshman Collins Cuthrell's (Rocky Mount, N.C.) first collegiate hit was a memorable one. Cuthrell's walk-off base knock in the first extra inning capped an excited comeback for Barton. Kutztown took a promising 3-1 lead in the top of the eighth before the Bulldogs rallied for three runs in the home half on five hits.
Senior Jordan Smith (Longmont, Colo.) started the rally with a triple over the center fielder. Smith's three-bagger started a five hit barrage that won the game for Barton. Freshman David Gibbons (Wilson, N.C.) followed with a double that plated Smith before scoring on a single by junior Chris Rawlings (Charlotte, N.C.). Junior Ryan Daughtry (Princeton, N.C.) then moved the potential game-winning runner Rawlings into scoring position with another single. Cuthrell ended the game with his bloop single that just landed on the outfield grass. Nineteenth year head coach Todd Wilkinson was sending Rawlings home from second and he scored easily when the right fielder misplayed the ball on the soggy grass.
The afternoon began as a pitchers' duel between two crafty lefties. Barton sophomore starter Kyle Norville (Tarboro, N.C.) took a shutout in the sixth inning for his second straight effective start to begin the season. Senior counterpart Jonathan Grosse (Bayport, N.Y.) matched Norville through five innings. Grosse flirted with a no-hitter until Daughtry ripped a line-drive single past the diving first baseman with one out in the bottom of the fourth. Grosse recorded seven strikeouts and Norville fanned four.
The two teams traded runs in the sixth, including a run-producing double by Daughtry that forced extra innings. Daughtry had three of the Bulldogs' eight hits. Kutztown regained the lead in the top of the eighth with a bases-loaded walk and a sacrifice fly.
Junior relieve Matt Watson (Lucama, N.C.) was credited with the win in only 2/3 innings of action.
GAME TWO: #9 Kutztown 17, Barton 4
The Golden Bears, who are also ranked No. 5 in the College Baseball Lineup (formally PING) preseason poll, unloaded 17 runs in two innings to pull away in the second game 17-4.
Kutztown sent 14 batters to the plate in the third inning en route to 10 runs on six hits. Only three of the seven runs were earned in the frame as Barton committed three errors. The Golden Bears added seven more runs in the fourth.
Senior James Quigley (Bensalem, Pa.) highlighted Kutztown's offensive surge with a three-run homer to right field. Quigley finished with five RBI. Junior third baseman Shayne Houck (Boyertown, Pa.) – a preseason All-American – drove in three with a pair of hits. Houck had two hits in each game.
Barton took an early 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second and added one run in the third and two more in the sixth. Cuthrell tallied two of the Bulldogs' seven hits and freshman Jimmie Davis (Elizabethtown, N.C.) had a two-run double.
Junior starter Bentley Massey (Wilson, N.C.) took his second loss of the season after allowing five runs (three earned) on four hits and two walks over 2 2/3. Sophomore Mitchell Frazier (Oxford, N.C.) hurled three hitless innings to finish the game. Frazer recorded seven of his nine outs on strikeouts.
