Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
by Kevin Buczek
WILSON, N.C.-Barton College bounced back from a 5-1 loss to visiting Coker College with an 8-1 victory in the nightcap at historic Fleming Stadium to earn a split of Friday's Conference Carolinas baseball doubleheader.
The Cobras can clinch the sixth and final playoff bid to next week's Conference Carolinas Tournament if they win in tomorrow's series finale and get help from other teams.
Barton (16-31 Overall, 7-17 Conf.) and Coker (23-22, 13-13) will wrap up league play and the three-game series on Saturday at Nixon Field with first pitch slated for Noon. The Bulldogs will be celebrating Senior Day before the BC season finale.
GAME ONE: Coker 5, Barton 1
Junior Brinley Griffin launched a pair of solo home runs to help complement a strong performance by classmate Tyler Witzel as Coker earned a 5-1 win to start the series.
Witzel took a shutout into the ninth inning before giving up a solo home run to sophomore Collins Cuthrell on the first pitch of frame. Cuthrell's homer was his team-leading eighth of the season.
Witzel allowed three of the Bulldogs six hits in the ninth to be chased having tossed 133 pitches and just two outs shy of the complete game. Witzel (4-3) did pick up the win with eight strikeouts over 8 1/3.
Junior Russ White took over for Witzel with the potential game-tying run on deck and induced a game-ending double play on his first batter faced to earn his first save of the season.
After three scoreless innings to start, Griffin put the Cobras on top for good with a one-out moon shot over the right field fence. Coker doubled up its lead by the end of the frame by scoring a second run on a wild pitch. Griffin then blasted his second long ball to right to lead off the sixth to increase the visitor's advantage to 3-0. A pair of unearned runs in the seventh completed Coker's scoring.
Junior Tyler Barrington led off the bottom of the first with a single but Witzel then held Barton to without another hit until senior Chris Rawlings laced a one-out single to center in the sixth. Six different Bulldogs accounted for Barton's six base hits.
Junior starter Christian Oliver (2-5) allowed five runs (three earned) over 6 1/3 innings of work while striking out a season-best eight batters in the losing effort.
Griffin finished the contest going 3-for-5.
GAME TWO: Barton 8, Coker 1
Junior Kyle Norville hurled his sixth complete game of the season and senior Ryan Daughtry drove in three runs as Barton earned the split with an 8-1 victory in the second game.
After trading unearned runs in the first inning, senior Ryan Daughtry provided Barton with its first lead of the day with a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the third. Daughtry then started a six-run fifth inning for the Bulldogs with a two-run double drilled over the left fielder.
Freshman Jackson Pardue added a two-run single down the right field line in the fifth. Pardue was 2-for-4 and has now hit safely in his first three collegiate games.
Daughtry and junior Phillip Williams accounted for six of the Bulldogs 16 hits with three base knocks apiece.
Norville (3-9) did not allow an earned run and gave up just four hits over seven innings. The 6-foot-4 lefty had four strikeouts.
Senior Jake Frazier produced half of the Cobras hits going 2-for-3 with Coker's lone run scored.
Junior starter Dan Meyer entered the contest ranked fifth in the conference with a 2.55 ERA but was ripped for seven earned runs on 10 hits over 4 1/3. Meyer (6-5) did have four K's.
