Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2
by Kevin Buczek
WILSON, N.C.-Junior shortstop Dillon Rudio was for 4-for-7 with six RBI including a grand slam to lead the Barton College baseball team to a 10-0 and 9-6 doubleheader sweep of Philadelphia University on Saturday afternoon at Nixon Field.
The Bulldogs have won three of their last four games to improve to 8-13 overall. Barton moved over .500 at home at 5-4 and will continue its season long 10-game home stand with a Southeast Region showdown against No. 25 nationally ranked UNC Pembroke Tuesday evening. First pitch at Fleming Stadium is scheduled for 5 p.m.
Barton scored a total of 19 runs on 17 hits and 12 walks. Outfielders Avery Harper and Phillip Cotten each supplied three base hits .Harper, Cotten and junior first baseman Collins Cuthrell all drove in three runs. Sophomore second baseman Spiers Miller scored four times.
Cuthrell has a six-game hit streak and Harper has hit safely in five consecutive contests.
The Rams return to Pennsylvania at 3-13-1 overall after concluding an eight-game spring break road trip 1-7 over the last five days with stops at Lincoln Memorial (Tenn.), Belmont Abbey (N.C.), Armstrong Atlantic State (Ga.) and Barton.
GAME ONE: Barton 10, Philadelphia 0
Rudio's grand slam in the fifth that sailed towards the scoreboard beyond the left field fence highlighted Barton's scoring in the 10-run shutout.
Cuthrell used the long ball to start the Bulldogs scoring with a two-run shot to left-center in the first. Cotten added a two-run double to extend BC's advantage to 4-0 after one frame. Harper tacked on two more Bulldog runs in the second with a single before Rudio completed the hosts scoring with his bases-clearing launch in the fifth.
Cuthrell took over the team lead in home runs with his fourth long ball. Rudio has two blasts in a Royal Blue and White uniform.
Senior starter Phillip Williams tossed five scoreless innings for his first win of the season. Williams (1-1) only allowed four hits and one walk while striking out one. Junior Zach Beachem and senior Mitchell Frazier each hurled one scoreless inning of relief to preserve the pitching staff's first shutout of the campaign.
Williams also batted as the designated hitter and he had a single down the right field line in the second to extend his team-best current hit streak to seven games.
Rudio and Cotten accounted for half of the Bulldogs eight hits with two base knocks apiece. Rudio also swiped a pair of bases to increase his team-high stolen base total to five.
GAME TWO: Barton 9, Philadelphia 6
Philadelphia held a 4-1 lead heading into the fifth before Barton exploded for eight runs in the home half of the frame to race in front. The Rams attempted to rally with sophomore shortstop Seth Greenwood hitting a two-run homer in the top of the sixth. Barton senior reliever Christian Oliver got out of the inning with a strikeout before Beachem secured the 9three-run nightcap win with a scoreless seventh.
The Bulldogs eight-run outburst featured a two-run double off the bat of sophomore Mitchell Wheeler, an RBI-double by Cuthrell and run-producing singles by Harper, Cotten and Rudio.
Philadelphia scored a pair of runs in both the second and fourth around a Rudio RBI-single in the third to take its 4-1 advantage. Sophomore starter Stephen Uhlak did not allow an earned run over the first four innings before losing control in the fifth. Uhlak issued two consecutive walks to Miller and Rudio to spark the Bulldogs comeback before Wheeler's double to the right field gap ended his day.
Oliver (3-3) was credited with the win as the pitcher in the game when Barton rallied. Beachem, who has not allowed a run in five appearances this season, earned his first save with a hitless seventh.
