Seven straight for red-hot Bobcats

The GCSU baseball team continued their offensive rampage this past weekend with a convincing three-game sweep of Indianapolis. The Bobcats swept a doubleheader on Saturday, winning 16-4 and 10-7, and followed with an 8-2 victory Sunday to close out the series. The Bobcats (7-4) have now won seven consecutive games.

“Our guys did a real good job this weekend,” Bobcat head coach Tom Carty said. “We played a good series. (Indianapolis) will be a tough team in their conference, and they match up well with the conference opponents we’re going to see this year. We went out there and beat their two top pitchers and outpitched them.”

GCSU exploded for 16 runs in the series opener. Down 1-0 in the first, the Bobcats scored six runs in their half of the inning. Senior designated hitter Steve Muoio, senior shortstop Chandler Snell and senior left fielder Kyle Allen all had RBI singles in the inning to make it a 6-1 game. Up 10-4, the Bobcats had another six-run outburst in the eighth. Snell led off with a double, and Allen and senior center fielder Sean Harrell followed with walks. With one out, redshirt junior catcher Richard Pirkle was hit by a pitch, pushing Snell across. Junior right fielder Shawn Ward drew an RBI walk, and later in the inning, junior second baseman Jason Veyna spanked a three-run double to make the score 16-4. Junior southpaw Matt Kaplan got the win on the hill for the Bobcats, giving up four runs over seven and a 1/3 innings, while striking out five batters. Kaplan improved to 2-0 on the year.

The second game of the doubleheader saw more offensive fireworks for GCSU in a 10-7 victory. The Greyhounds jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first, but the Bobcats came roaring back. Allen led off the first with a single, and Pirkle belted a home run later in the inning to cut the lead in half at 4-2. The Bobcats took the lead with three more runs in the second. With one out, junior third baseman Drew Goodman and Veyna had back-to-back singles. Both runners advanced on a wild pitch and Snell’s single scored Goodman. Veyna then scored on a throwing error to tie the game. Snell later scored on senior first baseman Matt Pitts’ sacrifice fly to make it 5-4. Ward added a two-run homer in the sixth to put the Bobcats up 9-5. They extended that lead to 10-5 in the seventh, when Snell stole home. Senior Martin Dewald got the win for the Bobcats, allowing five runs and striking out five over six innings of work.

GCSU finished out the sweep Sunday with an 8-2 win. Pirkle struck once again in the first, clearing the pine trees in left center for a two-run dinger to give the Bobcats the early 2-0 advantage. The Bobcats added two more runs in the fourth. With two outs, Muoio singled and Veyna had an RBI double. Veyna later scored on a balk to put the Bobcats up 4-0. The Greyhounds cut the lead in half at 4-2 in the seventh, but GCSU responded with four runs of its own in the bottom half of the inning. Snell reached on an error, Allen singled, and Harrell was hit by a pitch. After an RBI walk to Pitts, and Allen scored on a balk, Pirkle’s two-run single blew the game wide open at 8-2. Senior right hander Brendon Malkowski picked up the win for the Bobcats, allowing only two runs over seven innings and striking out three to run his record to 2-0 on the season.

The Bobcats deadly offense put up 34 more runs over the three-game series. Pirkle is leading the offensive charge with six homers and 21 RBI to go along with a .972 slugging percentage.

“I just go up there and try to get a good pitch to hit; anything I can do to help the team out,” Pirkle said. “We’ve gotten two good sweeps in a row. Our starters keep going out there and playing well. We’re getting some great hitting and good pitching and defense.”

“This is a veteran team, and we’re starting to do a good job with situations and hitting with runners in scoring position,” Carty said. “If we can keep our running game going and keep the hitting the ball with better pitching, we will be a tough team overall.”

The Bobcats game against Benedict on March 2 was rescheduled for a later date. GCSU returns to action this weekend, as they open up Peach Belt Conference play with a series against North Georgia. The Bobcats play today at 6 p.m. and a doubleheader tomorrow beginning 2 p.m..

Posted by Scotty Thompson on Mar 5 2010. 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