College of Charleston
Radford
@CofCBaseball drops 11-7 Decision to Radford
3/8/2015 9:45:00 PM | Baseball
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. – College of Charleston baseball suffered an 11-7 setback to Radford in the final game of the three-game series at Patriots Point on Sunday afternoon.
After sweeping the Saturday doubleheader, The College (8-4) surrendered its second-most hits in a game this season (13) and could not overcome an early deficit.
Offensively, the Cougars eclipsed double-digit hits for the fourth time this season with four different Cougars springing for multiple hits. After falling in an 11-1 hole, the Cougars spawned a five-run seventh inning, culminated by a two-run homerun by Cougar RBI leader Carl Wise, and an RBI double by Blake Butler. A solo homerun by Nick Pappas cut it to 11-7 when the Cougars were facing their final out in the ninth, but the comeback effort was thwarted from there.
“We got down by a bunch of runs by the halfway point of the game, and that's tough to come back from,” said head coach Monte Lee. “The message from there is to keep competing and keep your heads up, keep fighting. We did score five runs to get back in the ballgame to a degree, but when you give up that many runs it's tough to come back from it. We just have to do a better job of executing pitches and making plays.”
The Cougars gave up single runs in the first two innings, but manufactured a run in the third with a Bradley Jones single, a Champ Rowland walk, and a sacrifice bunt by Ryan Brown. With runners in scoring position, and Alex Pastorius delivered an RBI sacrifice fly to trim the deficit to 2-1.
Radford blew the game open in the middle innings, scoring two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings before hanging up four runs on four hits in the sixth.
Charleston chipped away in the seventh, igniting a rally with Devon Reed's first hit of the season after he entered as a pinch hitter. Brown followed with a single, putting two runners on, and Radford committed an error on a potential double play ball, allowing Reed to score. That set up Wise's two-run homer, marking his 13th RBI of the season. The Cougars continued the attack with a single by Pappas, followed by Butler's double off the wall in left which scored Pappas all the way from first.
Freshman Will Detwiler made his second career mound appearance and threw two perfect innings out of the bullpen, keeping the score at 11-6 through the eighth and ninth innings.
Pappas's ninth inning homerun was an opposite field shot to left, his second of the season.
The Cougars will look to bounce back when playing host to USC Upstate in midweek action on Wednesday, March 11. First pitch at Patriots Point is scheduled for 6 p.m.
“We have to be positive and put this one behind us,” said Lee. “We hope for a quality start out of whoever we throw on Wednesday, we hope to swing the bats, and hopefully that will lead to a quality result. I expect this club to bounce back in the midweek and be ready for next weekend.”
POSTGAME NOTES
The Cougar lineup was: 1. Ryan Brown (RF) | 2. Alex Pastorius (DH) | 3. Carl Wise (3B) | 4. Nick Pappas (1B) | 5. Blake Butler (2B) | 6. Morgan Phillips (CF) | 7. Erven Roper (C) | 8. Bradley Jones (LF) | 9. Champ Rowland (SS), as the Cougars worked against left-handed Highlander starter Mitchell MacKeith. The lineup matched Saturday's game one.
Champ Rowland has reached base successfully in all 11 games, while Blake Butler has reached successfully in nine straight games. Morgan Phillips and Nick Pappas both picked up hits on Sunday, but were kept off the bases in game two of the series after reaching successfully in the first 10 games.
Radford registered a leadoff single in the first three innings, and four of Radford's first five hits came with two strikes against them.
The Cougars registered seven two-out hits, but went just 1-for-5 (.200) with runners in scoring position.
Four different Cougars went for multiple hits, including Morgan Phillips who now has five multi-hit games this season.
