College of Charleston
James Madison
@CofCBaseball Overwhelms JMU, 12-0
3/28/2015 2:03:00 AM | Baseball
HARRISONBURG, Va. – Behind a pitching masterpiece by Taylor Clarke and five RBIs by Carl Wise, College of Charleston baseball overwhelmed James Madison, 12-0, in the first of a three-game Colonial Athletic Association series at Veterans Memorial Park on Friday night.
Game two of the series has been moved up from its original start time and is now scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
Charleston (15-7, 4-0 CAA) comprehensively downed the Dukes, outhitting them 16-2 in the contest to remain unbeaten in league play.
All nine Cougar starters recorded a hit and scored a run, as CofC finished the game hitting .390 (16-for-41) in the game. The College batted .370 (10-for-27) with runners on base and .333 (8-for-24) with runners in scoring position.
Six different Cougars sprung for multiple hits, led by Bradley Jones who went 3-for-4, and Wise, who matched his career high with five RBIs on a double and homerun.
Clarke tossed 6.2 innings of one-hit, scoreless baseball and retired 20 straight hitters with 10 strikeouts. After a leadoff seeing-eye single to open the game, Clarke sat down every hitter he faced before stepping off the rubber with two outs in the seventh.
“This was probably the best game we've played all year,” said CofC head coach Monte Lee. “Clarke was outstanding today; Will Detwiler did a great job too out of the bullpen. We only gave up one walk, and we played very well defensively.
“We really swung the bats well, too. We strung together quality at-bat after quality at-bat; we had a couple big innings. We just played exceptionally well. It always starts with your starting pitching, and Taylor Clarke was phenomenal today. It was a great game in all facets for us, and it's good to get game one of the series.”
The Cougars got on the board right away, with Ryan Brown leading off with an infield single and coming around to score on an Alex Pastorius RBI single within CofC's first two plate appearances. Blake Butler wasted no time extending his hitting streak to 18 games, driving an RBI single to left from the cleanup spot to score Pastorius from second.
Charleston went back to work in the second, ultimately plating three runs on three hits and a JMU error in the frame. Jones led off with a double to right center and scored without a throw on an Erven Roper RBI single down the first base line in the ensuing at bat. With two outs and two on, Wise hammered an 0-1 pitch in to right center to clear the bases and put CofC up 5-0.
Charleston tacked on another in the third on back-to-back doubles by Nick Pappas and Jones.
The College blew the game further out of proportion with a five-run, six-hit sixth, highlighted by a three-run bomb by Wise. After a Champ Rowland double and Pastorius walk, Wise homered to right center on a 1-0 pitch for a 9-0 Cougar lead. After the blast, Butler, Morgan Phillips, Pappas and Jones strung together four consecutive singles to plate two more runs.
The Cougars plated one more in the ninth, after Chris Clayton was hit by a pitch, went from first to third on a Rowland single, and scored on an RBI sacrifice fly by Pastorius.
POSTGAME NOTES
Blake Butler is only the seventh Cougar of all time to hit successfully in 18 straight games, tying with Lee Curtis for the sixth longest streak in program history. Curtis was drafted by the Boston Red Sox in 2003.
Charleston put seven of nine runners on base in their first trip through the lineup.
The Cougars are now 10-1 when getting on the board before their opponent, and 8-1 when scoring in the first inning. CofC is also 13-0 when leading after the sixth inning.
After Carl Wise's two-out, two-RBI double in the second, 19 of his league-best 34 RBIs have come with two outs this season. He achieved five RBIs for the second time in his career, matching an outing against Georgia Southern in 2013. The game was his 10th with multiple RBIs this season.
Morgan Phillips went for multiple hits for the 11th time this season.
The Cougars went for five doubles in the game after entering the series ranked seventh nationally with 2.43 doubles per game.
