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Shepherd 10, Charleston 6 | Final Stats
Shepherd opened the tournament with a 10-6 win over Charleston in the first game of the MEC Tournament.
Charleston's Austin Hathaway opened the game with a home run over the centerfield wall to put the Golden Eagles on the board. Steven Davis added an RBI double to give Charleston a 2-0 lead. The Rams answered back in the home half of the frame with Chase Hoffman’s RBI single.
Shepherd tacked on an additional run in the home half of the third after Brenton Doyle’s home run. Daniel Heleine’s solo shot to center and Doyle’s RBI single pushed the Rams ahead 4-2.
Charleston plated two in the top of the fifth thanks to a Colby Johnson RBI triple and groundout from Gianfranco Morello. Ron Farley hit a home run to left to give Shepherd a 5-4 lead after five innings. Five runs in the eighth by the Rams left Charleston trailing 10-5. The Golden Eagles plated one run in the ninth after Hathaway hit his second home run of the day, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit.
Ryan Potts picked up the win for Shepherd after holding Charleston to three hits and one earned run in three innings of work. Robert Fultineer took the loss on the mound for the Golden Eagles. He surrendered five hits and five earned runs over the course of three innings.
Hathaway had two hits and two RBI in the loss while Colby Johnson, Steven Davis, and Taylor Itnyre all notched two hits apiece. Lee Carneal led the offense with three hits on the afternoon.
Doyle had two hits and three RBI for Shepherd while Ron Farley added two hits and four RBI. Trenton Burgreen recorded two hits in the win while Jonathon Sarty notched three hits for the Rams.
Fairmont St. 12, Concord 6 | Final Stats
Fairmont State came out swinging in the Falcons’ opening game of the MEC Tournament and earned a 12-6 win over Concord in the MEC Tournament.
After a scoreless first inning, Ben Myers hit an RBI double in the second. Jacob Whitmore knocked in a run off a single up the middle in the third followed by a two-run single by Ted Sova to give the Falcons a 3-0 advantage.
Austin Norman hit an RBI double to left and Tyler Hill belted a three-run homer in the fourth to leave the Mountain Lions trailing 8-0. Concord responded with two runs in the fifth after singles by Chad Frazier and Adrian Peralta.
Johnny Kesling hit an RBI double in the eighth and Norman tacked on a three-run double in the ninth to extend Fairmont State’s lead to 12-2. The Mountain Lions plated four runs in the bottom of the frame using an RBI single from Frazier, Peralta’s two-run double, a sacrifice fly and RBI double from Jordan Clark, but it was not enough to overcome the deficit.
Michael Stout earned the win on the mound. He allowed two runs (two earned) off of eight hits in eight innings of work. Troy Becker took the loss for the Mountain Lions. He surrendered seven runs (seven earned) off of nine hits in 3.1 innings.
Norman was 5-5 at the plate for Fairmont State with three doubles and four RBI. Myers tallied four hits while Sova and Hill added three and two hits, respectively. Frazier and Williams each had three hits for Concord and combined for four RBI.
West Virginia Wesleyan 14, West Liberty 12 (13 innings) | Final Stats
West Virginia Wesleyan outlasted West Liberty, 14-12, in 13 innings on Thursday night in the MEC Tournament.
Tied 12-12 in the 13th, John Koon hit an RBI single and Austin Keene added another to provide the winning runs for the Bobcats.
Reliever Chris Metrick blew the save in the bottom of the ninth, but remained in the game and finished it to pick up the win. He ended up tossing six innings giving up the two runs on three hits.
The Hilltoppers grabbed a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the first, and then by scores of 7-3 and 9-4 after three innings.
The Bobcats rallied for one in the fourth and then tied the game at 9-9 with four more runs in the fifth. Hunter Rotarius had a two-run single and Greg Smith had an RBI double to help spark the inning.
The two teams traded runs in the seventh, and then Wesleyan grabbed its first lead of the game in the top of the eighth on a wild pitch and then an RBI double by Rotarius on an 0-2 count to make it 12-10.
Down to their final out and final strike in the bottom of the ninth inning but two runners on, WLU’s Ethan Estes hit a triple to right field to tie the game off Metrick. The game would remained tied until WVWC was able to pull ahead in the 13th and Metrick pitched a clean bottom of the inning to complete the game.
Rotarius finished the game 3-for-6 with four RBI and a run scored. Eric Forbrick had four hits, while Smith and James Fraser each had two hits for WVWC.
Estes finished 2-for-3 with the two RBI, and also reached base four more times on walks. Hughes had two hits, as did Vincent Haddox, Alex Rojas and Justice Jackson. Tory Fuscardo took the loss pitching 5.2 innings giving up two runs on four hits.