Catawba Beats Georgia College & State, Francis Marion Shuts Out Tusculum In NCAA Baseball Regional

Catawba Beats Georgia College & State, Francis Marion Shuts Out Tusculum In NCAA Baseball Regional
May 14, 2009

AIKEN, SC -- Several streaks remained alive as Catawba claimed a 7-5 win over Georgia College & State University in the opening game of the 2009 NCAA II Southeast Region Baseball Tournament. The Catawba Indians, ranked 21st in NCAA II, improve to 36-16 and will play the winner of the Tusculum/Francis Marion game on Friday night at 7 p.m. in their next contest. The Bobcats, ranked 20th, fall to 37-18 and play the winner of tonight's final game between Belmont Abbey and top-seeded USC Aiken on Friday.

Catawba has now won all four of its opening games in NCAA II regional play and junior Craige Lyerly (Salisbury, NC/E. Rowan HS) extended his hitting streak to 33 games, leading off the game with a single. Lyerly would collect three hits in the contest and broke both the Catawba and South Atlantic Conference record with 104 hits on the season.

Brian Hatley (Salisbury, NC/W. Rowan HS) followed Lyerly's leadoff single with a double and Ryan Query (Kannapolis, NC/Brown HS) singled to put the Indians up 1-0. Chris Ahearn (Charlotte, NC/Providence HS) added a sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead after a half inning.

Tim Holmes (Bay Village, OH/Bay HS) pitched into the seventh to improve to 7-2. He exited with an out in the seventh after a two-run single by Steve Muoio had trimmed Catawba's lead to 6-5. Wil Huneycutt (Locust, NC/W. Stanly HS) got a double play ball to get out of the frame and Nathan Furr (Albemarle, NC/W. Stanly HS) recorded the final four outs to earn his eighth save.

With the early lead, Catawba added single runs in the second, fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Query doubled home a run in the second and Lyerly scored on an error in the fourth as the Indians took a 4-0 edge. The Bobcats got on the board in their fourth as Chandler Snell doubled home a run and scored on an error with two outs.

Catawba answered the runs by GC&SU on a run-scoring double by Kevin McMillan (Salisbury, NC/N. Rowan HS) in the fifth. The Indians threatened to break the game open in the sixth, loading the bases with no outs, but Ryan Tabor got Query to ground into a third-to-home-to-first double play and got McMillan on a ground out. Lyerly did score on a wild pitch after the double play for a 6-3 lead.

With one out in the seventh, Holmes hit a batter and gave up a double to Richard Pirkle before the single by Muoio brought the Bobcats within a run. Cameron White (Columbia, SC/Ridge View HS) added an insurance run in the ninth, doubling home Josh Hohn (Greensboro, NC/S. Guilford HS) from first with one out.

Catawba pounded out 16 hits in the win, with Hatley and Ahearn joining Lyerly with three. Query and Hohn each collected two hits. Query led the way with two RBI. Muoio, Snell and Matt Pitts had two hits for the Bobcats, who had a dozen hits as a team.

Francis Marion 5, Tusculum 0

AIKEN, S.C. --- Junior left-hander Josh Edgin tossed a two-hit shutout to give seventh-ranked and second-seeded Francis Marion University a 5-0 win over 30th-ranked and fifth-seeded Tusculum College, Thursday afternoon in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Southeast Region Baseball Championship.

Francis Marion improves to 37-13-1 with its 16th straight win and advances to face 21st-ranked and fourth-seeded Catawba College on Friday at 7 p.m. Catawba beat Georgia College & State University 7-5 in Thursday's opener. Tusculum (36-17) will face the USC Aiken/Belmont Abbey College loser on Friday at 11 a.m.

Edgin (4-2) retired 13 consecutive batters through the middle innings, while the Patriots dented the scoreboard against Tusculum starter Max Keleher. FMU scored three times in the fourth and twice in the fifth. Edgin struck out six and walked only one batter in tossing his second complete game of the season. He needed only 94 pitches in the game that lasted just over two hours.

He allowed singles in the third and seventh innings and no Pioneer runner reached third base. Including his streak in the middle innings, he retired 21 of the final 22 Tusculum batters.

"You just have to tip your hat to (Josh) Edgin," said Tusculum coach Doug Jones. "The game he threw and the command he showed for the entire game was impressive. I think that was the difference in the game. When we had an opportunity to get a guy in scoring position, we popped up and wasted those opportunities. The difference was the command and the job he (Edgin) did."

FMU junior outfielders Martin Gordon and Alex Lee were both 2-for-4 at the top of the FMU lineup, while freshman left fielder Tyler Boyd was 2-for-4 in the No.9 spot.

In the fourth inning, Patriot catcher Jared Barkdoll walked to lead off the inning. Following an infield error and a sacrifice bunt, FMU had runners on second and third. Sophomore first baseman Preston Shuey plated the game's first run with a sacrifice fly to right center field. Jacob Wallace scored Francis Marion's second run when he scored from second on a single through the right side by Josh Biggers. On the play, the throw from Tusculum right fielder Jared Richmond beat Wallace to the plate, but Tusculum catcher Sean Finucane dropped the ball when Wallace collided with him at the plate. Biggers scored the third run on a RBI double down the left field line by Boyd.

The Patriots tallied a pair of runs in the fifth to lead 5-0. Lee dropped a double onto the left field line to lead off the frame. One batter later, he scored on a hit-and-run single through the left side by Barkdoll. Kleinknecht scored the second run on an RBI fielder's choice grounder by Wallace.

Richmond and second baseman Payden Houser had the two Tusculum hits. Keleher (7-3) was tagged with the loss as he allowed seven hits and the five runs, although only one of the runs was earned. Reliever Michael Franklin kept Tusculum in the game as he pitched fourth innings of two-hit, shutout relief.

"I thought Max battled really well early in the game," Jones added. "The only issue I had with him was the lead off walk to start the fourth inning, but that was the only thing negative I had with him, and we couldn't make a couple plays behind him, and good teams like Francis Marion take advantage of that. "He (Keleher) gave us a chance, as did Michael who came in and gave us a chance to get things going offensively."

#30 Tusculum vs #7 Francis Marion
May 14, 2009 at Aiken, SC (Hernandez Stadium)

Tusculum 0 (36-17) Francis Marion 5 (37-13-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
--------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------
Ricky Feliz lf............. 4 0 0 0 Gordon cf.................. 4 0 2 0
Sean Finucane c............ 3 0 0 0 Lee rf..................... 4 1 2 0
Eric Barclay cf........... 1 0 0 0 Kleinknecht ss............. 4 1 1 0
Jared Richmond rf.......... 3 0 1 0 Barkdoll c................. 2 1 1 1
Sean Cotten dh............. 2 0 0 0 Wallace dh................. 3 1 0 1
Paul Finger 3b............. 3 0 0 0 Graves 3b.................. 3 0 0 0
Matt Ford 1b............... 3 0 0 0 Shuey 1b................... 3 0 0 1
Nate Grabowski cf.......... 2 0 0 0 Biggers 2b................. 4 1 1 0
Elliot Burrow ph/c........ 1 0 0 0 Boyd lf.................... 4 0 2 1
Payden Houser 2b........... 3 0 1 0 Edgin p.................... 0 0 0 0
Aaron Hudgins ss........... 3 0 0 0
Max Keleher p.............. 0 0 0 0
Michael Franklin p........ 0 0 0 0
Totals..................... 28 0 2 0 Totals..................... 31 5 9 4

Score by Innings R H E
-------------------------------------------
Tusculum............ 000 000 000 - 0 2 3
Francis Marion...... 000 320 00X - 5 9 0
-------------------------------------------

E - S. Finucane(3); Paul Finger(17); A. Hudgins(21). DP - FMU 1. LOB - TCB 2; FMU 7.
2B - Lee(12); Boyd(4). SH - Barkdoll(3); Graves(5). SF - Shuey(2).

Tusculum IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO NP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Max Keleher L,7-3......... 4.0 7 5 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 18 22 6 4 59
Michael Franklin .......... 4.0 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 13 14 0 11 46

Francis Marion IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF FO GO NP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edgin W,4-2............... 9.0 2 0 0 1 6 0 0 0 16 28 29 6 14 94

WP - M. Franklin(2). Pitches/strikes: Max Keleher 59/37; M. Franklin 46/31; Edgin 94/63.

Strikeouts - Ricky Feliz 2; J. Richmond; Matt Ford; N. Grabowski; E. Burrow;
Wallace; Graves. Walks - Sean Cotten; Barkdoll; Wallace.

Umpires - HP: David Pritchard 1B: Mike Trotter 2B: Todd Peele 3B: Brett Tharp
Start: 3:00 PM Time: 2:01 Attendance: 167

Max Keleher faced 3 batters in the 5th.