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| Paladins defeat Mountaineers during
three-game series, 3-0 |
Brad Norman
Sports Beat |
Josh Brown | Chief Photographer |
Furman University’s
Tom Mastny continued his mastery of not only Appalachian State University
but the rest of the league, pitching a complete game and picking
up the win as Furman dusted off Appalachian 5-2 Friday night at
Furman Stadium.
Mastny struck out nine batters while giving up
only four hits and one earned run.
After a quick run in the first inning, Furman
added three more early runs in the second.
Nick Wajda walked and A.J. Daviduik hit a single
to put two men on base.
Craig Caudill, who went 4-5 in the game, singled
to drive in Wajda, and Derek Norman hit another single after that
to score Daviduik.
Appalachian starting pitcher Nick Peterson then
walked the next two batters, one of them with the bases loaded,
to give Furman its final run of the inning and to increase Furman’s
lead to 4-0. |
Appalachian offered
a little hope in the third inning when Derek Smith scored off a
double by Justin Thomas.
Appalachian collected another run in the sixth inning when Graham
Thompson scored on Tim Johnson’s double.
That would be the closest ASU would come to Furman.
Furman added another insurance run and Mastny
only gave up one hit in the final three innings, leaving the final
score as a 5-2 victory for Furman.
Game two
John Stallsmith picked up where Mastny left off, perplexing the
Mountaineers with seven innings of great pitching. The Furman offense
came to life when Furman defeated Appalachian 9-2 on Saturday to
take a 2-0 series lead in the three-game weekend series.
Appalachian starter Joe Norton started off the first inning in a
jam.
Appalachian’s Thompson scored in the first inning to give Norton
a lead, but Norton surrendered two runs in the first inning.
Norton walked three consecutive batters to load the bases and Drew
Latora hit a single to knock in two runs.
The Paladins drove in three more runs in the second inning to give
them a 5-1 lead.
Clint Hill hit what should have been the final out of the inning,
but Thomas overthrew Thompson at first base, and Hill raced around
the bases to score.
Instead of retiring to the dugout, Norton gave up hits to Norman
and Wadja, and Dominic Frankey drove both the runners in and Norton
out of the game.
Norton left after 1.2 innings, giving up only three hits, but five
walks and five runs.
Frankey’s two RBI’s would not be his
last. He hit a line drive homerun in the fourth to give the Paladins
an 8-1 lead, which would prove to be far too much for the Mountaineers
to overcome.
Game three
The formula the Furman Paladins used the first two games was working,
so they kept to their method of strong pitching and a lively offense
to sweep the Mountaineers in the three-game series, defeating them
Sunday, 15-1.
The 15-run outburst was more runs than Furman scored in the previous
two games combined and was the most the team had scored all season.
Kyle Funk won his second game in a row and struck out four batters
while scattering four hits over six innings.
Appalachian starter Scott Clark, looking for his first win of the
season, took an immediate blow by giving up four runs in the first
inning.
He did not finish the inning and reliever Monty Fast ended the Paladin
threat by striking out Davidiuk.
Furman built a 9-1 lead after five innings and then blew the game
open in the sixth, scoring six runs to claim a 14-run lead.
Frankey, Richie Dean and Case Cassedy scored off singles and Andrew
Greene smashed a three-run homerun over the left field wall to account
for the final three runs.
The win for the Paladins was the seventh in their last eight games.
The Mountaineers’ next game will be today at 3 p.m. when they
host Wake Forest University at Red Lackey Field, a team that beat
Appalachian by 25 runs earlier in the season. |
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