No. 1 seed Mercer, No. 4 VMI advance

CHARLESTON, S.C. – Mercer’s Charlie Madden hit a three-run double in the bottom of the third inning that proved to be the difference as the top-seeded Bears downed No. 8 seed The Citadel 3-2 on Thursday at the Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by Mountain Shore Properties.

Mercer (32-21) advances to face the winner of Wednesday’s VMI-UNCG contest at 12:30 p.m. Thursday. The Citadel (26-29) will take on the VMI-UNCG loser in an elimination game at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

With the Bulldogs leading 2-0 after two innings, Mercer got things going against Citadel starter JP Sears (5-5) in the third. With one out, a walk, an error and another walk loaded the bases for Madden, who drilled Sears’ 1-1 offering off the wall in right for a bases-clearing double, missing a grand slam by just inches.

That would be all the offense the Bears would need, as starter Eric Nyquist (8-2) and relievers Morgan Pittman and Dimitri Kourtis held the Bulldogs at bay the rest of the contest. Nyquist allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits and a walk in five innings of work, while Pittman did not allow a run in 3 1/3 innings to lower his SoCon-best ERA to 2.59. Kourtis struck out the only two batters he faced in the ninth to lock down his third save of the season.

The Citadel struck first with single runs in the first and second innings. With two down in the first, Connor Walsh smashed a solo home run to left-center. The Bulldogs picked up an unearned run in the second, as Drew Ellis reached on an error, went to second on a balk and took third on a wild pitch before coming home on Ryan Kilgallen’s sacrifice fly to right.

That was the last of the scoring for the Bulldogs, who stranded seven runners in the contest, all from the sixth inning on. The Citadel left the bases loaded in the sixth, as Pittman worked around a two-out walk to retire the side after the first two batters reached against Nyquist.

After stranding two in the eighth, The Citadel had one last chance to tie it in the ninth, as Steven Hansen reached on an infield single and went to second on a sacrifice. Kourtis fanned pinch-hitters Mike Deese and Bailey Rush to advance the Bears in the winners’ bracket.

Mercer missed several scoring chances of its own, stranding 11 runners on base on the day. The Bears left two on in the first, second, third and seventh innings as Sears continued to work his way out of trouble.

The freshman southpaw allowed three unearned runs on just three hits but walked six and struck out a season-high 10 in 5 1/3 innings. Sears walked three and struck out three in Mercer’s big third inning.

The Citadel outhit Mercer 7-6 on the day, with Hansen, Walsh and Austin Mapes recording two hits each for the Bulldogs. Trey Truitt was 2-for-4 to lead the Bears.

No. 4 VMI 6, No. 5 UNCG 5

CHARLESTON, S.C. – VMI catcher Matt Winn curled a go-ahead, line-drive home run around the left-field foul pole to lead off the eighth inning and UNCG stranded two runners in the top of the ninth as the fourth-seeded Keydets edged the fifth-seeded Spartans 6-5 in Thursday’s second game of action at the Southern Conference Baseball Championship presented by Mountain Shore Properties at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park.

After UNCG (23-26) tied the game at 5 in the top of the eighth, Winn answered in the bottom half, hammering a low line drive down the line to put the Keydets (21-28) ahead for good.

Winn’s drive made a winner of Jack Gomersall (3-1), who relieved VMI starter Andrew Woods with a run in and a runner on first in the top of the eighth. Gomersall needed just four pitches to earn his third win of the season, as he induced a line-out double play to send the game to the bottom half, where Winn hit the difference-maker.

Taylor Edens earned his 12th save of the season with a scoreless ninth, but it was not without drama. After Edens retired the first two batters on a pop up and a groundout, Aaron Wright singled sharply to left. Collin Woody was hit by a pitch to put the go-ahead run at first, but Edens recovered to strike out Eric Kalbfleisch to end the game.

VMI opened the contest with three runs in the bottom of the first, getting a two-run single from Collin Fleischer, with another run scoring on an error on the play.

The Spartans got two of those runs back in the third on an error on Hunter King’s grounder to second, with King picking up one RBI on the play.

The Keydets scored on a double-play groundout in the third to make it 4-2, but UNCG pulled back within a run on Tripp Shelton’s RBI single in the fourth.

UNCG tied it at 4 in the top of the sixth, as Tyler Long homered on the first pitch he saw to lead off the inning.

That’s where the score remained until the seventh, when Ray Lopez hit an RBI single to put VMI up 5-4. UNCG would tie it in the eighth on Ryne Sigmon’s RBI single to set up Winn’s heroics in the bottom half.

Jordan Tarsovich and David Geary each went 2-for-3 to lead VMI, and Fleischer was 1-for-4 with two driven in.

For UNCG, Shelton was 3-for-4 with an RBI and Long was 2-for-4 with an RBI and three runs scored. Wright also had two hits.

Tyler Frazier took the loss for UNCG, as he allowed a run on a hit and a walk in 1 2/3 innings. Starter Ryan Clark went 6 1/3 innings, surrendering five runs (four earned) on seven hits and two walks. He struck out 12.

VMI starter Woods went 7 1/3 innings, also giving up five runs, only four of which were earned. He struck out seven, walked two and allowed eight hits.

Every game of the SoCon tournament will be streamed live and free on the SoCon Digital Network with the exception of Sunday’s championship tilt, which will air on ESPN3.

May 19 (Tuesday)
SoCon Championship presented by Mountain Shore Properties (all games on SDN)
(Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park; Charleston, S.C.)
Game 1: #8 The Citadel 8, #9 ETSU 2

May 20 (Wednesday)
SoCon Championship presented by Mountain Shore Properties (all games on SDN)
(Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park; Charleston, S.C.)
Game 2: #2 Samford 8, #7 Western Carolina 7 (10 inn.)
Game 3: #3 Wofford vs. #6 Furman, susp.

May 21 (Thursday)
SoCon Championship presented by Mountain Shore Properties (all games on SDN)
(Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park; Charleston, S.C.)
Game 4: #1 Mercer 3, #8 The Citadel 2
Game 5: #4 VMI 6, #5 UNCG 5
Game 3: #3 Wofford vs. #6 Furman resumption    3 p.m.
Game 6: #8 The Citadel vs. #UNCG    5:30 p.m.
Game 7: #7 Western Carolina vs. Loser Game 3    8:30 p.m.

May 22 (Friday)
SoCon Championship presented by Mountain Shore Properties (all games on SDN)
(Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park; Charleston, S.C.)
Game 8: #2 Samford vs. Winner Game 3    9 a.m.
Game 9: #1 Mercer vs. #4 VMI    12:30 p.m.
Game 10: Winner Game 7 vs. Loser Game 8    5 p.m.
Game 11: Winner Game 6 vs. Loser Game 9    8:30 p.m.

May 23 (Saturday)
SoCon Championship presented by Mountain Shore Properties (all games on SDN)
(Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park; Charleston, S.C.)
Game 12: Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 10    9 a.m.
Game 13: Winner Game 9 vs. Winner Game 11    12:30 p.m.
Game 14: Winner Game 12 vs. Loser Game 12^    5 p.m.
Game 15: Winner Game 13 vs. Loser Game 13^    8:30 p.m.
^ if necessary

May 24 (Sunday)
SoCon Championship presented by Mountain Shore Properties (ESPN3)
(Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park; Charleston, S.C.)
Championship game    2 p.m.

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