Fine shines in two-hit CG shutout to open SAC play

Salisbury, N.C. —- The Catawba College baseball team rode Austin Fine's complete-game two-hit shutout to a 4-0 win over Emory & Henry in their South Atlantic Conference opener at Newman Park on Friday night. The Catawba Indians improve to 7-5 overall and 1-0 in the SAC, while the Wasps fall to 4-8 overall, dropping their first-ever SAC game.

Fine was firing on all cylinders in the win, giving up just two hits and striking out seven in nine shutout innings, facing just four more batters than the minimum. The junior tossed 104 pitches in the outing, while moving to a perfect 4-0 in his fourth start of the season.

Dylan Driver got the offense going in the third inning, hitting a one-out homer to left-center to give Catawba an early lead. Harris Jackson scored on a double play later in the fourth to double the lead.

Catawba added two insurance runs in the eighth after Levi Perrell scored on a wild pitch and Cameron Mills singled to right-center to score Cooper Bryson.

Jack Swarbrick took the difficult loss for the Wasps, giving up two runs on nine hits in six innings of work, as Catawba took advantage of E&H's five errors in the game.  

The two complete the three-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.