Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
by Kevin Buczek
WILSON, N.C.-Erskine College rode the strength of a pair of complete game performances from its starting pitchers en route to a 5-2 and 6-3 Conference Carolinas doubleheader sweep of host Barton College on Saturday afternoon at Nixon Field.
The Flying Fleet have won seven of their last nine to depart for Due West, S.C., with a 15-11 overall record and a 6-6 ledge in league play. The Bulldogs had their three-game win streak snapped to stumble to 8-17 on the year and 2-9 in the conference.
Barton next entertains No. 15 Catawba College on Tuesday at 3 p.m.
GAME ONE: Erskine 5, Barton 2
In another close game between league foes, Erskine scored the game's final three runs to pull out a 5-2 win in Saturday's opener to end a four-game losing streak to BC.
Junior Heath Gray tossed a 127-pitch complete game in only his second start of the season for the Flying Fleet. Gray (2-0) had seven strikeouts and only scattered six hits and issued two walks over nine strong.
An RBI-single by sophomore Will Huff in the top of the fifth broke a 2-2 tie that plated junior Drew Willingham for what proved to be the game-winning run. Erskine added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth.
Barton took an early lead in the bottom of the first on a single by sophomore Collins Cuthrell that knocked in junior Phillip Williams.
Senior Zach McCarthy propelled the Fleet into the lead for the first time with a two-run blast to right in the top of the second. Barton then knotted the score for the only time in the fourth as junior Clay Martin led off with a single and later scored on a freshman Spiers Miller single.
Barton left 11 runners on base. Williams had two of the Bulldogs six hits for his team leading 11th multiple hit game of the season.
Erskine totaled 10 base hits including two each off the bats of Willingham, Huff and junior Phillip Herring.
Barton junior starter Dylan Newton only allowed six hits over seven innings but was tagged with the loss allowing three earned runs and six walks. Newton (2-3) had three K's.
GAME TWO: Erskine 6, Barton 3
Erskine scored in each of the first three innings and rolled to a 6-3 victory in the rubber game.
Three consecutive run-producing singles by Huff, junior Kevin Loucks and freshman Logan Galliher in the top of the first put the visitors in front from the start.
A trio of consecutive base hits by the Bulldogs in the home half of the first frame cut the early deficit to 3-1. Williams started the two-out rally with a hit right back up the middle. Cuthrell followed with a base knock to center and freshman Matthew Berry drove in Williams with a shot to left.
The Flying Fleet added a pair of runs in the second before pulling ahead 6-1 on a leadoff solo homer by Huff in the top of the third.
Junior Alex Brann and freshman Michael DelSardo drove in the Bulldogs final two runs with singles but Barton left eight more runners stranded on base.
Junior starter Taylor Wall went the distance in the scheduled seven-inning contest allowing three runs on eight hits and three walks while striking out one. Wall (2-3) was only making his third start of the campaign.
The complete games by Gray and Wall marked the first two complete games by Fleet hurlers this season other than ace Robbie Brown, who tossed in Friday's series opener.
Junior lefty starter Kyle Norville matched Wall with seven innings pitched but was charged with six runs (five earned) on 11 hits and two walks. After allowing all six runs in the first three innings, Norville (1-6) allowed three singles over the last four frames, all in the seventh, to keep the Bulldogs within striking distance.
Berry was 2-for-3 with a walk.
Williams, Cuthrell and senior Chris Rawlings all have hit safely in their last six games.
