Pitching Leads Eagles Past The Citadel
4/26/2009 9:42:00 PM | Baseball
CHARLESTON, S.C. ? Jake Brown (Forest Hill, MD/Pitt CC) pitched into the seventh inning and the bullpen closed the door for Georgia Southern as the Eagles won at The Citadel 3-1 Saturday afternoon (April 25). The 28th-ranked Eagles improved to 30-10 overall, 13-5 in the Southern Conference.
The 30th win marks the 10th time in the 10 years under head coach Rodney Hennon that the Eagles have won 30-plus games.
The Citadel (24-17, 11-9) got a one-out double by Bryan Altman in the first inning. Sonny Meade lifted a flyball down the right field line in foul territory. Kevin Bowles (Statesboro/Statesboro) could not make the catch in foul territory but the ball was ruled fair, putting runners on second and third. Richard Jones reached on a swinging bunt to score a run.
The Eagles scored twice in the third inning, all without a base hit. Jonathan King (Athens, TN/Young Harris) walked to start the inning then Ty Wright (Montrose/ABAC) was hit on the hands by a pitch. Bowles dropped down a sacrifice bunt to advance the runners. Griffin Benedict (Dunwoody/St. Pius) tied the game on a grounder. Wright scored when Asher Wojciechowski uncorked a wild pitch.
Citadel threatened in the fourth putting runners on second and third with no one out. Brown struck out Kyle Jordan for the first out. Johnny Dangerfield hit a grounder back to Brown, who slipped off the mound but was still able to get up and throw out Matt Simonelli at the plate for the second out. A.J. Wirnsberger (Tuscaloosa, AL/Paul Bryant) charged in on Nick Orvin's grounder and threw onto first in time to end the threat.
In the sixth, Benedict ended a 0-for-6 streak in the series by launching a shot to right field. His fifth home run of the year gave the Eagles a 3-1 lead, one that Brown and the bullpen would maintain.
Brown pitched into the seventh inning but gave way to Dexter Bobo (Cumming/Darton College). The junior left-hander got the final out of the seventh. In the eighth Jones struck out but a wild pitch allowed him to reach. Chris McGuiness, who in the third lined into an unassisted double play by first baseman Eric Phillips (Carrollton/Carrollton), hit a high grounder to Phillips. The freshman threw down to Brian Pierce (Roswell/Roswell) for the lead out, then with Bobo covering GS was able to turn the 3-6-1 double play. Bobo got Simonelli on a fly ball to end the frame.
Kyle Kamppi (Savannah/Benedictine) worked a 1-2-3 ninth inning for his team-leading seventh save and 10th of his career to move into a tie for eighth place all-time.
“Our energy level was up today, it has to be because any team would love to take the first two wins and get the series win. We regained the momentum today and hopefully can carry it into tomorrow,” said Benedict. “If there was a positive to pull from last night (6-2 loss) it was that we put runners in scoring position but could not execute. Our confidence level was there as was the energy. Today we did a much better job of doing the little things, getting bunts down and advancing runners.”
Benedict recorded both of the team's RBI and finished with two of the Eagles' four hits. Wright singled in the fifth and Phillips reached on a bunt single in the first.
Brown (4-3) gave up just the one unearned run on seven hits. He walked one and struck out four, in what turned into his third-longest outing of the season, one out away from the high.
Wojciechowski (2-3) allowed three runs on three hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out nine, one shy of his career-high. Meade tallied two of the Bulldogs' seven hits.
The Eagles will go for the series win at Riley Park on Sunday afternoon (April 26), first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.
