Marshall University Athletics
Baseball Falls In Final Game At Mercer
2/13/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Baseball Falls In Final Game At Mercer
2/13/2005
- Box Score
MACON, Ga. - For the second straight game, the Marshall University offense was held scoreless as the Mercer Bears finished off a three-game series sweep of the Thundering Herd with an 8-0 win Sunday afternoon at Claude Smith Field.
Mercer (6-0) held Marshall (0-3) to only five hits on the day while notching eight runs on ten hits.
The game started off as another defensive battle as both starting pitchers started off strong, especially Brian Knippelmeyer (Lincoln, NE) who struck out five batters in the first two innings. His luck changed, though, in the bottom of the third inning as he was tagged for four runs and four hits. Sean McCahill, Brandon Reichert, Daniel Hurst and Chris Grossman each had RBI singles in the inning.
Jeremy Slone (Paintsville, KY) finished off the inning for the Herd. In the top of the fourth, the Herd made an attempt to come back, recording three hits. Aaron Jamieson (Lindsay, Ont.), Roddy Stieger (Westchester, OH) and Tommy Johnson (Gaithersburg, MD) each recorded singles in the inning, but the Herd could not produce any runs in the inning.
In the bottom of the inning, Mercer made it a 5-0 game. Ricky Santo tripled with one out and advanced home on a balk by Slone. After Marshall left two more baserunners on in the top of the sixth inning, the Bears came back to add on two more runs on two walks and a double to take a 7-0 lead. They threatened again in the seventh, loading up the bases with no outs, but senior pitcher Mike Marchyshyn (Markham, Ont.) got a double play and a fly out to get out of the inning without any further damage being done. In the eighth inning, Mercer added one more run after two Herd errors in the inning to finish the scoring and take the 8-0 win.
Knippelmeyer, in his first start for the Herd, pitched 2 1/3 innings, allowing four runs on four hits. He took the loss for Marshall. Shawn Barrett, the starter for Mercer, went five innings to earn the win.
Marshall's five hits were recorded by Jamieson, Stieger, Johnson, Rich Russell (Toronto, Ont.) and Adam Ptacek (Assaria, KS).
The Herd is back in action next week when it travels to Hattiesburg, Mississippi to take on future Conference USA opponent Southern Mississippi. The three-game series is set to start on Friday at 3 p.m..
