Marshall University Athletics
Herd Swept By Mercer In Saturday Doubleheader
2/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Herd Swept By Mercer In Saturday Doubleheader
2/12/2005
- Game One
- Game Two
MACON, Ga. - The Mercer pitching staff limited the Thundering Herd to two runs in two games to sweep Saturday's doubleheader at Claude Smith Field.
Mercer (5-0) notched a 3-2 win in 11 innings in game one before shutting out the Herd (0-2), 2-0 in the second game.
Game one turned out to be a defensive battle with only ten hits being registered over 11 innings. Each team received solid pitching from their respecive pitchers. Chris Cummings (Huntington, WV) went 4 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on two hits. He threw 91 pitches in the outing. Freshman David Slovak (Louisville, KY) had a strong outing to open up his collegiate career. Slovak went 5 1/3 innings giving up only four hits and one run. For the Bears, starting pitcher Brantley New went six solid innings with one unearned run being scored.
Mercer took an early lead in the bottom of the second inning when Josh Thompson homered off of Cummings to center to give them an early 1-0 lead.
The offense for the Thundering Herd got on the board in the top of the fourth inning. With two outs, junior Aaron Jamieson (Lindsay, Ont.) hit a single to get on base. After Bubba Pfaff (Florence, CO) reached on an error and Roddy Stieger (Westchester, OH) walked, freshman Tommy Johnson (Gaithersburg, MD) came to the plate with the bases loaded and earned a walk to bring in Jamieson to score the first run of the game for the Herd.
The Bears came back in the bottom of the fifth to retake the lead at 2-1. With one out, Sean McCahill was walked by Chris Cummings. With two outs, Slovak was brought in and threw a wild pitch and balked to move McCahill to third. A single by Brandon Reichert brought in McCahill and gave Mercer their second lead of the game.
Trailing 2-1 entering the top of the ninth, Marshall put together a rally to tie the game back up. Aaron Jamieson walked to lead off the inning. Two outs later, freshman Tommy Johnson (Gaithersburg, MD) was at the plate and sent the first pitch he was down the third base line to bring in Jamieson to tie the game.
After both teams went down in the tenth, Rich Russell (Toronto, Ont.) led the 11th inning off with a walk and was sacrificed to second by Jamieson, but the run was stopped short when the final two batters of the inning struck out. In the bottom of the inning, Mercer took advantage of their opportunity. After loading the bases with no outs, Shawn Barrett sent in the winning run for Mercer after an error by Herd shortstop Aaron Levinson (Seattle, WA).
Despite a stellar outing in his MU debut, David Slovak took the loss. He pitched 5 1/3 innings, giving up four hits. Cummings also pitched well, giving up two runs in 4 2/3 innings. The offense managed only three hits off of the Mercer pitching staff. Recording the hits were Jamieson, Johnson and Pfaff. Jamieson also scored the Herd's two runs in the game.
The second game of the doubleheader was another low scoring affair as Mercer won another close game, 2-0.
Once again, Marshall had stellar pitching as starter Chris Koutsavlis (Pittsburgh, PA) went 7 1/3 innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits. One of those runs came in the first inning when Brandon Reichert hit a home run to left field to give Mercer the early 1-0 lead.
From that point, the game was scoreless until the bottom of the eighth inning when Eric Renfroe hit a one-out single and stole second with two outs. That brought Daniel Hurst to the plate, and he came through for the Bears, hitting a single to give the Bears an insurance run and extend their lead to 2-0.
Marshall made a rally in the top of the ninth when Tommy Johnson and Bubba Pfaff both reached base to lead off the inning, but Mercer pitcher Andrew Urena got the final three batters out to finish off the sweep and give Mercer a 2-0 win.
The Herd had numerous chances to score runs, but came up empty. Aside from the ninth inning, MU had multiple runners on base in the first and eighth innings. In the first, Adam Frederick (Franklin, PA) and Aaron Jamieson hit two-out singles, but a ground out by Tommy Johnson ended that inning and in the eighth, Nick Wolle (Coatesville, PA) and Brent Mason (Sherwood, AR) led off the inning with singles, but that run was stopped short by two strikeouts and a ground out.
Koutsavlis took the loss for Marshall, starting the season off 0-1. Both teams had seven hits in the second game. Aaron Jamieson notched two hits while five others had one pit a piece.
On Sunday, the teams return to action for the third and final game of the series at 1 p.m.. Log on to Herdzone for an update after the game.
