Friday's Baseball Roundup

First Inning Outburst Helps Bears Topple Tennessee Tech
The Mercer baseball team exploded for five runs in the first inning and did not look back, taking down Tennessee Tech by a score of 9-1 on Friday night. The Bears scored five times in the first, once in the second and three times in the third inning to jump out to a big lead, while Mercer pitching took care of the rest with eight consecutive zeroes.

Samford Baseball Sweeps Doubleheader From Evansville
The Samford University baseball team swept a doubleheader from Evansville on Friday at Joe Lee Griffin Field, winning the games by scores of 10-4 and 6-2 in seven innings. With the sweep, Samford improved its record to 11-8. Evansville fell to 5-13 with the losses. In game one, Samford starting pitcher Miller Riggins (2-1) pitched 6.0 innings, allowing two runs on three hits and striking out five batters to earn the win on the mound for the Bulldogs. Noah Berry pitched a third of an inning and Evan Steckmesser pitched the final 2.2 innings without allowing a run.

UNCG Baseball Earns 9-4 Victory Over North Carolina A&T
The UNC Greensboro (UNCG) baseball team earned a 9-4 victory over North Carolina A&T to begin a non-conference weekend series on Friday at UNCG Baseball Stadium. Jacob Dilley drove in the first run for the Spartans during the opening inning when he knocked a single through the left side to score Trey Truitt from third, which made it 1-0. The Aggies answered in the second inning with Nick DiCarlo singling into shallow right to score Savoi Edwards. However, the Spartans had an answer to reclaim the lead, 2-1, with Jose Perez batting a ball to short, which allowed Jacob Budzik to score from third.

Bucs sweep doubleheader from Longwood
The ETSU baseball team continued its stellar play in front of its home fans on Friday by sweeping a doubleheader against Longwood. The Blue and Gold won game one in seven innings by a score of 12-1 and then followed that by rallying from a 4-0 deficit to down the Lancers 14-4 in eight innings. With the pair of wins on Friday, ETSU improves to 14-4 on the season.

The Citadel's Cadiz Delivers Go-Ahead RBI Single
Noah Cadiz delivered on a pinch-hit RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Bulldogs the 4-3 victory over Kennesaw State on Friday night. The Citadel scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Wofford Baseball Falls in Game One at Elon
The Wofford baseball team fell behind early and could not climb back into the contest Friday evening at Latham Park, falling 12-5 to the Elon Phoenix. The Terriers drop to 12-6 as the Phoenix improve to 8-9. Branton Little (2-2) suffered the loss as the starter for Wofford, allowing nine runs in 3.2 innings of work. He struck out three. Alec Bouchard and John Gray each tossed 1.2 innings to follow. Bouchard surrendered three runs (one earned) with three punchouts, and Gray struck out one in a scoreless outing. Davis Rivers made his collegiate debut, tossing a scoreless inning with his first two punchouts.

Big Innings Lift Catamounts to Doubleheader Sweep
Two big innings on Friday helped spur Western Carolina baseball to the doubleheader sweep over visiting Eastern Illinois, leading to the nonconference series win. The opportunistic Catamounts scored four runs with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning in the series opener, capitalizing on an inning-extending infield error to win the front end 5-3. In the nightcap, WCU logged a five-run second inning in racing to a six-run lead to complete the sweep with a 9-2 victory in game two of the twin bill.