Baseball closes out 4-0 weekend with win over Saint Michael’s

Salisbury, N.C. —- The Catawba College baseball team fought off a late Saint Michael's comeback attempt on Sunday afternoon, defeating the Purple Knights 3-2 to finish a 4-0 weekend at Newman Park. The Catawba Indians improve to 15-9 overall, while SMC drops to 0-7 on the year.

The Catawba pitching staff kept Saint Michael's scoreless for the first seven innings, as the Catawba Indians used multiple arms on a bullpen day to quiet the Purple Knight bats. Michael Gracer, Robbie Cowie, Kenny Dollenger and Ross Fowler combined to shutout Saint Michael's over the first seven innings on three hits, striking out nine. Cowie earned the win, retiring each of the six batters he faced across the third and fourth innings.

Cameron Mills was the leader offensively, going 2-for-5 with a double and the lone RBI on the day for Catawba. Jackson Price also went for two hits with a stolen base and a run scored.

Price got the second inning started with a leadoff single. After Zeb Burns forced a two-out walk, Mills' RBI single to left field put Catawba on top in the early going. Cooper Bryson and Levi Perrell raced around for home on a throwing error in the third, extending Catawba's lead to 3-0.

The Saint Michael's push came in the eighth inning, when Evan Balian hit an RBI single up the middle and Ryan Canty had an RBI groundout to cut their deficit to a single run. Griffyn Shelton forced a groundout to end the inning, however, and Marshall Raper finished off the save in the ninth to send Catawba to its fourth straight win.

Catawba continues South Atlantic Conference play next weekend, hosting Coker for a three-game set. Game one on Friday is set for 6 p.m.