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Citadel, Western Carolina Win at Baseball Tourney
No. 1 Western Carolina 13, No. 8 Samford 7
GREENVILLE, S.C. – No. 1 seed Western Carolina hit five home runs, including a pair by Tyler White and back-to-back jacks by Aaron Attaway and Julian Ridings, to take a 13-7 win over No. 8 seed Samford on Wednesday at the Southern Conference Baseball Championship at Fluor Field.
Adam Martin also homered for the 29th-ranked Catamounts (39-18), who matched their season high in homers set less than a week ago in a 23-5 win over Appalachian State.
Western Carolina advances to face No. 4 seed The Citadel on Thursday at either 5 p.m. or 8:30, depending on the outcome of Wednesday’s Elon-Furman game.
Samford (27-29) will face No. 5 seed Appalachian State in an elimination game at 10 a.m. Thursday.
Western Carolina scored in five of the eight innings in which it batted, jumping out to a 5-1 lead and eventually leading by as many as 10 runs late.
White, the media’s pick for SoCon Player of the Year, homered in consecutive innings, putting one off a window of the building beyond the Green Monster in left field in the seventh inning and clearing the wall in left-center in the eighth. His second blast gave WCU a 13-3 lead.
After Samford took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on C.K. Irby’s RBI double, Western Carolina answered in the bottom half with Martin’s three-run bomb.
The Catamounts extended their lead on White’s two-run, ground-rule double in the second inning, which made it 5-1. Samford got a run back on Irby’s RBI groundout in the third and got within two runs on Brandon Haarer’s RBI single in the fourth.
Western Carolina continued to apply the pressure, however, with Attaway and Ridings mashing consecutive monster homers in the fourth to restore the four-run lead. Attaway put his off the building beyond the Green Monster, while Ridings’ towering blast just stayed fair down the right-field line.
Those were the first of eight straight runs for Western Carolina, which got White’s solo shot in the seventh before putting up a 5-spot in the eighth.
Luke Gragg got the eighth-inning outburst starting with an RBI single before Attaway turned in a two-run triple, Ridings lifted a sacrifice fly to center and White went deep for the second time.
The Bulldogs scored four runs in the ninth on three RBI singles and a sac fly for the final margin.
For WCU, Attaway was 4-for-5 with three runs and three RBIs, missing the cycle by a double. White was 3-for-5 with four RBIs, and Ridings, Martin and Cody Jones had two hits each.
Patrick McGavin went 4-for-5 to lead Samford at the plate, while Irby was 1-for-4 with three RBIs. Zeth Stone was 3-for-5 with two runs scored and Phillip Ervin and Drew McWhorter had two hits apiece.
Western Carolina’s Jeremy Null improved to 9-2, allowing three runs (two earned) on eight hits in seven innings. Samford’s Eric Wright (5-4) took the loss, surrendering seven runs on seven hits in 3 2/3 innings.
No. 4 The Citadel 6, No. 5 Appalachian State 5
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Local product Joe Jackson hit a walk-off solo home run in the bottom of the ninth inning to cap a dramatic opening game and lift fourth-seeded The Citadel past No. 5 seed Appalachian State 6-5 at the Southern Conference Baseball Championship at Fluor Field on Wednesday.
Jackson, from nearby Mauldin, S.C., took Taylor Thurber’s 0-1 offering out to left-center to give the Bulldogs (33-24) the win after the Mountaineers (28-23) had staged an impressive rally to tie the game in the top half of the inning.
Trailing 5-3 entering the ninth, Appalachian State got a one-out walk from Preston Troutman to get the rally going. One out later, Hector Crespo sent the first pitch he saw from Bulldog closer Skylar Hunter (3-4) out to left-center to give the Mountaineers life and knot the game at 5. Appalachian State had a chance for more, but after Noah Holmes’ double, pinch-runner Brandon Burris was thrown out at the plate trying to score from second on Will Callaway’s infield single.
Thurber (3-2) got a four-pitch strikeout for the first out of the bottom of the ninth before Jackson ended the game.
The Citadel never trailed in the contest. The Bulldogs scored a quick run in the bottom of the first inning, with Bo Thompson’s groundout driving in Hughston Armstrong from third.
The Mountaineers answered with a run in the top of the second to tie the contest, as Michael Pierson stroked a single through the right side to score SoCon Freshman of the Year Jaylin Davis from second.
The Bulldogs pulled back in front in the third inning, with Drew DeKerlegand smoking a bases-clearing triple off the wall in left-center to make it a 4-1 contest. DeKerlegand’s hit capped a two-out rally, as Jackson and Thompson drew walks and Tyler Griffin was hit by a pitch to load the bases with two down ahead of DeKerlegand.
Once again, the Mountaineers quickly found an answer. Pierson led off the top of the fourth with a solo homer to left, his second of the season, and Crespo later added a sacrifice fly to score William Head and make it 4-3 in The Citadel’s favor.
The Citadel added another run in the seventh on Griffin’s sacrifice fly.
Both starters were roughed up a bit, as The Citadel’s Austin Pritcher, the SoCon Pitcher of the Year, didn’t make it through the fifth inning and Appalachian State’s Jamie Nunn, the other first-team All-SoCon starter, surrendered five runs in six innings of work.
The bullpens came to the rescue until the ninth, with Appalachian State’s Jeffrey Springs and Thurber working 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief until Jackson’s shot, and The Citadel’s Ross White, Zach Sherrill, David Rivera and Hunter combining for four scoreless frames before Crespo’s blast tied it.
Jackson reached base in all five of his plate appearances, going 2-for-2 with a double, homer and three walks to pace The Citadel at the plate.
Callaway was 3-for-5 for Appalachian State.
The Mountaineers will face the loser of Western Carolina-Samford game on Thursday at 10 a.m., while The Citadel awaits the winner at either 5 p.m. or 8:30 p.m. Thursday, depending on the outcome of Wednesday’s Elon-Furman game.
Wednesday, May 22
(Fluor Field, Greenville, S.C.)
Game 1: #4 The Citadel 6, #5 Appalachian State 5
Game 2: #1 Western Carolina 13, 8 Samford 7
Game 3: #3 Elon vs. #6 Furman, 5 p.m.
Game 4: #2 College of Charleston vs. #7 Georgia Southern, 8:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 23
(Fluor Field, Greenville, S.C.)
Game 5: #5 Appalachian State vs. Loser Game 2, 10 a.m.
Game 6: Loser Game 3 vs. Loser Game 4, 1:30 p.m.
Game 7: #4 The Citadel vs. Winner Game 2, 5 p.m. (or 8:30 p.m. if Furman wins Wednesday)
Game 8: Winner Game 3 vs. Winner Game 4, 8:30 p.m. (or 5 p.m. if Furman wins Wednesday)
Friday, May 24
(Fluor Field, Greenville, S.C.)
Game 9: Loser Game 7 vs. Winner Game 5, 3 p.m.
Game 10: Loser Game 8 vs. Winner Game 6, 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 25
(Fluor Field, Greenville, S.C.)
Game 11: Winner Game 7 vs. Winner Game 9, 10 a.m.
Game 12: Winner Game 8 vs. Winner Game 10, 1:30 p.m.
^Game 13: Loser Game 11 vs. Winner Game 11, 5 p.m.
^Game 14: Loser Game 12 vs. Winner Game 12, 8:30 p.m.
Sunday, May 26
(Fluor Field, Greenville, S.C.)
Game 15: Championship game (ESPN3), 2 p.m.
All times Eastern
^ If necessary. If Game 13 is not necessary, Game 14 will begin approximately 40 minutes after the conclusion of Game 12.