‘Cats rack up 9 straight

    GCSU’s baseball team has torn through a nine game winning streak that propelled them back into the nation’s top ten teams.
    The Bobcats capped a six game home stand with Wednesday’s 15-5 win over Benedict College.
    “It’s definitely a good time to play good baseball,” head coach Tom Carty said. “We’ve got guys stepping up and getting the job done right now.”
    During the home stand the No. 8 Bobcats knocked off Shorter College, Ohio Valley University, No. 23 University of Motevallo and Benedict to improve to 9-2.
    Ohio Valley rolled into Milledgeville for a three game stand starting on Saturday. The Bobcats brought their hitting shoes, scoring 26 runs on 29 hits in the series.
    GCSU tallied 12 of those hits in the first game while the Fighting Scotts managed only five.
    However, the Bobcats also committed five errors in the 9-7 win. Senior starting pitcher Sean Heimpel took the brunt of the Bobcat mistakes, surrendering five runs, four unearned, over four innings.
    “Our struggles and the times we played lackadaisical it’s been because of what we’ve done on the mound,” Carty said. “If you don’t throw strikes and you don’t keep your defense alive it’s hard for them to play behind you.”
     Heimpel has had a rough start to the season after being looked at as the team’s ace. He gave up four walks against Ohio Valley to bring his season total to ten in 12.2 innings of work.
    Fortunately, the relievers came to his rescue, most notably sophomore righty Brandon Owens who recorded his second win of the season. Owens threw two innings, surrendering only one hit and no runs.
    Senior catcher Pete Paris went two-for-three in the game and added two walks and two runs. Junior right fielder Danny McCorkell went three-for-five with a pair of RBI’s and a run.
    The Bobcats found themselves up early in game two with a four run first inning.
    In that inning junior third baseman Derek Johns plated two Bobcats with a single before sophomore first baseman Matt Pitts knocked him home with a triple off the top of the wall in right-centerfield.    
    Senior lefty Shaun Monica pitched six strong innings, striking out ten batters while surrendering two hits and one run to earn the 8-1 win.
    “I’ve just really focused on doing what I’m supposed to do on the mound,” Monica said. “I’ve been working hard out here on the field everyday just trying to get better and get this team to three-peat as conference champions.”
    Redshirt-freshman Brad Jackson scored twice in the game while recording two hits. Johns added three more RBI’s and a run in his two-for-four showing.
    GCSU got another strong pitching performance on Sunday from sophomore lefty Clete Jessup. Jessup pitched seven innings surrendering only two earned runs, while striking out seven Fighting Scotts to earn his second win of the season.
    Johns and Paris put up strong performances at the plate once again. Each went two-for-four and scored a run. Johns knocked in three runs and Paris added two.
    On Tuesday the Bobcats got another impressive pitching performance in their 2-1 win.
    Freshman hurler Eric Pettepher shut down Montevallo hitters, throwing seven innings while surrendering only one run on three hits in his first collegiate start.
    “I was kind of nervous in the first inning,” Pettepher said. “My defense helped out a lot – I didn’t really have that in high school. After that I sort of settled down a bit and got in a groove and everything was working pretty well.”
    Owens recorded the final six outs of the game in as many batters to earn his first save.
    “That was a great outing by Eric,” Paris said. “We didn’t hit the ball as well as we’d like to, but it seems like everything is coming together.”
    The Bobcats needed the strong pitching as they could manage only five hits in the contest.
    Carty was very pleased with the Pettepher’s performance.
    “We needed that,” Carty said. “We knew going into the season that their wasn’t enough returning pitching just to rely on Sean (Heimpel) and Shaun (Monica) and Clete. I thought Eric was going to do well for us this year and he did such a good job with his first start.”
    Wednesday’s game was not as close.
    After finding themselves down 4-2 in the third, the Bobcats’ bats came alive, pushing 13 players across the plate over the next three innings.
    Six of those runs came in a fourth inning rally.
    Sophomore shortstop Chandler Snell got the inning started when he smoked the ball into right-center for a double. Senior second baseman Tony Rice then reached on an error by the pitcher, advancing Snell to third. Sophomore centerfielder Sean Harrell knocked Snell in with a bunt base hit, then sophomore leftfielder Brett DiFelice roped a double into the left-center gap to take the lead.
    Johns later doubled in the inning plating DiFelice and sophomore third baseman Brooks Robinson, who reached on an error, to end the sixth inning onslaught.
    Sophomore reliever Gator Parker pitched two innings to record his first collegiate win.
    The Bobcats spend next week on the road, starting with their Peach Belt Conference opening series at No. 10 Armstong Atlantic State University on Saturday and Sunday. AASU has yet to lose a game in the young season.
    “I think we’ll score runs,” Carty said. “We’re going to need a good effort out of Heimpel on Saturday and Clete and Shaun Monica. It’s Conference time and each game is probably going to be up for grabs (against AASU). I think we’ve proven we can win some tight games, and that’s something to feel good about going into the weekend.”

Bobcat homestand
(Feb. 12 – Feb. 20)

GCSU 9, Shorter 0
GCSU 9, Ohio Valley 7
GCSU 8, Ohio Valley 1
GCSU 9, Ohio Valley 4
GCSU 2, Montevallo 1
GCSU 15, Benedict 5

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 22 2008. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry