Marshall University Athletics
Baseball Sweeps Eastern Michigan In Doubleheader
3/26/2005 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Baseball Sweeps Eastern Michigan In Doubleheader
3/26/2005
- Game One
- Game Two
HUNTINGTON, W. Va. - The Thundering Herd baseball team opened up its final season in the Mid-American Conference with a sweep of the Eagles of Eastern Michigan University in a Saturday doubleheader at University Heights.
MU took game one by a 7-5 score before taking the second game, 14-8.
Leading Marshall (7-12, 2-0 MAC) over EMU (4-15, 0-2 MAC) was game one starting pitcher Chris Koutsavlis (Pittsburgh, PA) and Adam Frederick (Franklin, PA). Koutsavlis went 8 1/3 innings in game one, giving up five runs on seven hits for his second win of the season in the first game while Frederick became the hero in game two, knocking in six runs, including a grand slam.
EMU opened the scoring in game one when Derek Lehrman hit a solo home run to center field. The Herd answered back with a run of its own in the third when Aaron Jamieson (Lindsay, Ont.) scored on a wild pitch. Jamieson, who singled to reach base, advanced to third on a double by Joe Glevenyak (West Palm Beach, FL) and scored a few pitches later.
Marshall made it a 2-1 game in the fifth. Roddy Stieger (Westchester, OH) doubled to lead off the inning and scored on a single by Tommy Johnson (Gaithersburg, MD). The Eagles would tie the game up in the sixth on an RBI double by Ryan Arnett.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Herd put up five runs to take a 7-2 lead. After Aaron Levinson (Seattle, WA) singled to lead off the inning, Jamieson hit a home run to make it a 4-2 game. Glevenyak followed that up with a solo shot to left. Brent Mason (Sherwood, AR) finished the inning up with a two-RBI single.
Up five runs going into the ninth, Chris Koutsavlis gave his best effort to record his second straight complete game, but the Eagles put up a fight, recording three hits and a walk to put two runs on the board. With the tying run at the plate, Brendon Bump (Lawrence, KS) came in with runners on second and third with one out. After an RBI ground out by Brett Witczak, Bump got Ben Jones to ground out to second to finish off the game. Bump earned his first save of the season in the outing.
Game two was a story of walks and hits for both teams. Marshall jumped out to an early 6-0 lead. In the top of the first, MU loaded up the bases with no outs to bring up Joe Glevenyak, who hit a sacrifice fly to center to score the run.
In the second, MU scored five times. Bubba Pfaff (Florence, CO) reached on an error to lead off and advanced to second on a single by Brent Mason. Nick Wolle (Coatesville, PA) singled to left to score Pfaff. After Adam Ptacek (Assaria, KS) walked to load the bases, Adam Frederick hit a grand slam to deep center field for his first home run of the season to give the Herd a 6-0 lead.
Eastern Michigan made their run in the top of the fourth, adding five runs of their own. Three Eagle hitters were walked by starter Chris Cummings (Huntington, WV) to load the bases with one out. After Cummings hit Brett Witczak to bring in a run, he was replaced by Brian Knippelmeyer (Lincoln, NE). Cummings, who went 3 1/3 innings, did not allow a hit in the outing. He also struck out eight batters, but ran into trouble with five walks.
Knippelmeyer struck out the first batter he faced, but was not as lucky with the second batter, Isaiah Gainforth, who hit a two-RBI single to center. After Jeff Davis walked, MU catcher Nick Wolle tried to pick him off at first, but overthrew first baseman Roddy Stieger. Two runs would score on the error to make it a 6-5 game.
After a scoreless inning, the Herd offense put the game out of reach with a seven-run fifth inning. In that inning, the EMU pitchers walked three batters and hit another one. Three runs were scored on either walks or hit batters with the bases loaded in the inning. Wolle and Jamieson each had RBI singles while Adam Frederick had a two-RBI single to put MU up 13-5. A solo home run by Roddy Stieger in the sixth made it 14-5.
EMU made a comeback attempt in the eighth, loading up the bases with one out. Isaiah Gainforth brought in two runs with a single, and Ben Jones knocked in another run to make it a 14-8 game, but Brendon Bump came in again and got out of the inning without anymore runs being scored. He sat the Eagles down in order in the ninth as the Herd would complete the sweep of the Eagles with a 14-8 win.
Knippelmeyer got the win in the second game, improving to 2-4. He went 3 2/3 innings allowing three runs, one hit and struck out four.
The Herd offense had two stellar outings, topping EMU's offense in hits by a 25-11 margin. Aaron Jamieson and Adam Frederick both recorded four hits on the day. Frederick had six RBI's while Jamieson batted in three on the day.
Marshall will look for its first series sweep of Eastern Michigan when they host the Eagles at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
