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Elon, Georgia Southern Remain Perfect at SoCon Tournament
SoCon Baseball Championship Central
Game 8: #1 Elon 15, #4 Western Carolina 7
With the win, Elon (39-14) gets Friday off before playing in the 9 a.m. game on Saturday against either The Citadel or Appalachian State. Western Carolina’s record falls to 35-21, and the Catamounts return to action Friday with a 7 p.m. game against Furman.
After scoring three runs in the first inning but still trailing 5-3, Elon blew the game open in the second with six runs. Austin opened up the scoring with a triple that scored three runs. Later in the inning, Davis hit a three-run home run to left center that put the Phoenix up 9-5.
Leading the way for the
With his performance, Austin tied three SoCon Tournament single-game records. His 11 total bases and two home runs match numerous others, including Georgia Southern’s Kyle Blackburn, who also recorded two homers and 11 total bases in the previous game. His six RBIs also ties him with five others.
Picking up the win for Elon was Daniel Britt (8-0), who allowed five runs but none after the first inning. Suffering the loss was the Catamounts’ Garrett Ozar (4-5), who surrendered nine runs in 1.1 innings of work.
Elon added insurance runs in the third, fifth and sixth innings, pushing the score to 15-5. In the third inning,
The Catamounts managed to drive in two runs in the bottom of the ninth before Elon closed out the game.
Game 7: #2 Georgia Southern 6, #6 Appalachian State 5
GREENVILLE, S.C. ? No. 2 seed Georgia Southern hit four home runs including two from Kyle Blackburn as the Eagles held on to defeat the No. 6 seed Appalachian State Mountaineers, 6-5, in a winner’s bracket game of the 2009 Southern Conference Baseball Championship.
With the win, the Eagles will next play on Saturday at 1 p.m. against an opponent from the opposite side of GSU’s original bracket who is yet to be determined. With the loss, the Mountaineers drop into the loser’s bracket where they will meet The Citadel at 3 p.m., on Friday.
In all, Blackburn was 3-for-4 with two home runs, a triple and two RBIs. The junior tied a SoCon single game tournament record with 11 total bases. Ty Wright hit a home run and had two RBIs while Griffin Benedict went 2-for-4 with a home run and two RBIs as well. In a losing effort, ASU catcher Jerod Faggart went a perfect 4-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs.
Appalachian State came back in the bottom of the second to tally two runs to take the 2-1 lead. Faggart tripled to center field scoring Jason Wallace. Faggart later scored on a wild pitch.
The Eagles’ Wright hit a two-run home run in the third inning and Benedict homered in the fifth to round out the Eagles’ homer barrage and extend the lead to 5-2.
GSU pitcher Jake Brown (6-3) picked up the win after pitching seven innings while giving up five runs. Suffering the loss was Mountaineers’ pitcher Josh Dowdy (6-3).
Appalachian State scored a pair of runs in the eighth to cut the Eagles’ margin to one at 6-5. However, with a runner on third, the inning ended for the Mountaineers.