Bobcats sweep Crusaders, fall to Erskine
The GCSU baseball team suffered a tough loss at home this past Wednesday against Erskine, falling 14-10.
The Flying Fleet was quick to gain control of the game and prevent the Bobcats from scoring. When the Bobcats were trailing 8-0 in the fifth inning, and the game looked as though it might end in a shutout loss, GCSU began to turn the game around, when senior left fielder Kyle Allen hit a two-run homer bringing in himself and senior shortstop Chandler Snell to set the score at 8-2.
The Bobcats kept fighting to catch up when they hit two home runs in the sixth inning. The first homer was hit by senior first baseman Matt Pitts, who hit a two-run shot and brought himself and junior right fielder Shawn Ward across home plate. Shortly after, junior designated hitter Richard Pirkle hit a two-run homer and set the score at 11-6.
GCSU made great strides to settle the score when Pitts earned an RBI from a double to left field and a single hit by Pirkle brought in Pitts and Ward to set the score at 11-9. Even though the Bobcats continued to fight, they were unable to catch up, and the Flying Fleet defeated GCSU with the final score at 14-10.
“We had high hopes of going in and finishing out with a strong season and maybe hosting regionals and tonight was kind of a big step back for that,” Pitts said. “The only thing we can take out of it is that we’ve got to get better, we’re on top right now but we have a lot to do to get better.”
Last week the Bobcats were on the road to North Greenville, S.C., and swept the Crusaders in a three-game series.
In the beginning of the first game, North Greenville quickly took a 7-1 lead over the Bobcats by the second inning. GCSU was able to turn the game around when a two-run homer hit by Ward in the third inning and a two-run homer hit by Pirkle in the fifth set the score at 7-5 with the Bobcats trailing. In the seventh inning, the Bobcats took control of the game when a two-run homer hit by Ward and RBI’s from Allen, Snell and junior second baseman Jason Venya brought in five runs for GCSU and gave them a 10-9 advantage.
On Friday, the second game of the series started in the Crusaders’ favor when they had a 3-1 lead on the Bobcats in the second inning. The Bobcats were able to gain control of the game with four runs in the third inning. An RBI hit by senior center fielder Sean Harrell in the fourth inning earned GCSU a 7-4 victory.
“We played great baseball and just hammered them,” Ward said. “Our pitching really showed up, it gave us three strong outs from our starters and our offense was able to score some runs for them.”
In the final game of the series, the Bobcats quickly took a large lead when they scored four runs in the first inning.The Bobcats continued to increase their lead when Harrell hit an RBI in the sixth inning to give the Bobcats an 8-3 win and a sweep victory against North Greenville.
The Bobcats are on the road today as they face Armstrong Atlantic in their final regular series of the season.
“At this point, what you’ve got to do is pitch well, play good defense and try to score some runs,” head coach Tom Carty said. “We need to continue to get better on the mound, making quality pitches, continue doing what we’re doing and nothing other than keeping our guys sharp.
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