Moye Shuts Down Spartans, 12-0, for Series Sweep
With its first shutout in almost three years, Georgia Southern (14-11 overall, 7-2 in the conference) completed a three-game sweep of the Spartans (11-12, 0-6).
Moye (3-2), an Alpharetta, Ga., native, scattered five hits and collected a career-high 13 strikeouts. He did not walk a batter, and had only three three-ball counts against the 30 batters he faced.
“We had three quality starts over the weekend, which is the first time all year we’ve done that for a complete weekend. That was good to see,” said head coach Rodney Hennon. “Andy [Moye] was outstanding today. All weekend, we did a good job of attacking the strike zone from the mound. We didn’t give up many free passes and our guys did a good job of pitching aggressively. To compliment, we played pretty sound defense behind them.”
Led by Blackburn (Marietta, Ga.), who was 2-for-2 with five RBIs, the Eagles supported Moye with 13 hits. Eric Phillips (Carrollton, Ga.) was 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI, and Arthur Owens (Fayetteville, Ga.) was 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs.
A crowd of 1,489 watched as Georgia Southern scored the only run it would need in the bottom of the first inning. Owens led off with a double, advanced to third on Kevin Bowles’ (Statesboro, Ga.) single and scored on Blackburn’s sacrifice fly to the wall in right-center field.
A report of lightning in the area delayed the game for 39 minutes in the top of the second. In the bottom of the inning, a two-out error by UNCG’s first baseman led to two unearned runs. Owens had an RBI single as the Eagles increased their lead to 3-0.
Georgia Southern scored three more runs and chased Spartan starter Colby Hyatt in the bottom of the fourth. Roman Grimaldi (Duluth, Ga.) and A.J. Wirnsberger (Tuscaloosa, Ala.) had RBI singles, while Bowles hit a sacrifice fly to put the Eagles in front, 6-0.
Blackburn hit a solo homer with one out in the bottom of the sixth. One out later, Phillips laced an RBI single scoring Steve Cochrance (Mooresville, N.C.) to give Georgia Southern an 8-0 advantage.
After Moye struck out the side on 11 pitches in the top of the seventh, the Eagles scored their final four runs in the bottom of the inning. Owens had an RBI single before Blackburn belted his second home run of the game, a towering three-run shot that landed in the parking lot beyond the right-center field fence.
For Blackburn, it was his team-leading ninth home run of the season, and the fifth two-homer game of his career.
The Spartans put a man on second base in the first, third, fifth and eighth innings, but none of them ever reached third base. They were 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position against Moye.
Charles Matthews pitched the ninth inning for the Eagles, giving up one hit before closing out the team’s first shutout since a 2-0 win over Davidson on May 6, 2007.
Hyatt (2-2) took the loss for the Spartans. He worked 3.2 innings, giving up six runs (four earned) on seven hits with one strikeout an two walks.
Georgia Southern will host North Florida on Tuesday (March 30) at 6 p.m.
- Category: Baseball
- Published on Sunday, 28 March 2010 17:10
