College of Charleston
William and Mary
Six Homers Propel No. 18 @CofCBaseball to 15-2 Win
5/2/2015 3:29:00 AM | Baseball
WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – No. 18 College of Charleston baseball exploded offensively with six home runs and 18 hits in a 15-2 victory over William and Mary in Colonial Athletic Association play at Plumeri Field on Friday night.
Charleston (33-9, 14-2 CAA) had two different hitters with multiple homeruns for the first time since the 2008 season, as Alex Pastorius and Blake Butler both homered twice. Nick Pappas and Erven Roper homered as well.
Pastorius finished 4-for-6 with four runs scored and four RBIs, setting career bests in all categories. Every Cougar in the starting lineup recorded a hit, and joining Pastorius with multiple hits were Ryan Brown, Carl Wise, Butler, and Champ Rowland.
Not to be overshadowed by the Cougars' offensive prowess, starting pitcher Taylor Clarke (10-1) offered his fifth-straight quality start and became the first Cougar pitcher to eclipse 100 strikeouts in a season since 2006. Clarke scattered three hits while dealing 7.0 innings, holding the Tribe to just one earned run while fanning nine.
Will Detwiler closed the game with 2.0 innings scoreless innings in relief, pitching out of a jam by setting up game-ending 5-4-3 double play.
Brown opened the game with an optimal, eight-pitch leadoff at-bat, drawing a full count and spoiling multiple potential strike-threes before finally seeing an outside pitch and driving it down the third-base line for a double. Charleston followed with three consecutive hits by Pastorius, Wise, and Butler to plate two runs before recording an out. With two outs and runners on the corners later in the inning, Bradley Jones drove a double to left to give the Cougars a 3-0 lead.
The Cougars added two more in the second after Rowland beat out and infield single, and the first of two Pastorius homers left the yard to left.
The Tribe managed an unearned run in the third inning after picking up their first hit of the game by way of a double by Josh Smith to lead off. A Cougar throwing error moved Smith to third, where he scored from on a sacrifice fly by Cullen Large.
W&M cut further into the lead with Charley Gould's CAA-leading 13th homer of the year, trimming their deficit to 5-2.
Charleston put its power on display in the fifth, with Pastorius and Butler both going deep to left. Wise drove a ball to the warning track between the two long balls, narrowly missing what would have been the Cougars' fifth-ever back-to-back-to-back homeruns.
The College blew the game further out of proportion with five runs on five hits in the sixth, culminated by back-to-back homers by Butler and Pappas. Rowland started the inning with what-was-then the Cougars' 10th hit of the night, later followed by four consecutive two-out, run-scoring hits. After RBI singles by Pastorius and Wise, Butler drove a ball out to the warning track in left center, which the center fielder did well to track down, but the ball popped out of his glove as he collided with the fence. Butler was hustling out of the batter's box, and sprinted all the way around the bases to slide in safely ahead of the relay throw. Pappas's trot around the bases in the ensuing at-bat was considerably more leisurely, as his moon-shot soared out of the park to right as a no-doubter off the bat.
The Cougars plated three more in the ninth, led off by Roper getting involved in the homerun action and going deep to right. Rowland walked and Brown singled to put two runners on board, and an RBI double by Wise and RBI bounce-out by Tommy Richter plated two more runs.
The Cougars will look to clinch their seventh-straight series victory with game two on Saturday, and will hand the ball to righty Brandon Glazer. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m.
POSTGAME NOTES
The Cougars entered the week ranked in all five polls recognized by the NCAA, climbing as high as No. 18 according to the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and USA Today Coaches Poll. Charleston was ranked No. 19 by both Baseball America and D1Baseball, and No. 20 by Collegiate Baseball.
The Cougars have achieved double-digit hits for 11 straight games and 17 times in their last 18 games.
Charleston entered the game ranked eighth nationally in home runs per game (1.1) and improved upon that clip with their 16th multi-homer game. Charleston is 15-1 when hitting more than one home run.
In Charleston's 32 wins this season, The College has rallied for innings of three or more runs 42 times. In their nine losses, the Cougars have produced just one inning of three runs or more.
The Cougars scored in the first inning for the 20th time this season and improved to 19-1 on those occasions.
The Cougars are now 20-2 when getting on the board before their opponent and 29-0 when leading after the sixth inning.
With strikeouts 98-107, Taylor Clarke moved from fifth to third in single-season strikeouts at CofC, surpassing Nick Chigges and Graham Godfrey who both eclipsed 100 strikeouts in the 2006 season.
Alex Pastorius achieved career highs in hits (4), RBIs (4), runs scored (4), and home runs (2).
Alex Pastorius and Blake Butler became the first pair of Cougar hitters to achieve multiple homers in the same game since May 17, 2008, when current assistant coach Brandon Sizemore achieved the feat alongside Michael Harrington.
Blake Butler extended his reached-base streak * to 40 games which goes all the way back to opening weekend. On the season, Butler has at least one base hit in 37 of CofC's 42 games, and the game was his team-high 21st multiple-hit game.
Erven Roper and Morgan Phillips extended hitting streaks to 10 and 11 games, respectively. Roper has reached base successfully* in 18 straight games.
Nick Pappas has reached base* in 21 consecutive games.
*A reached-base streak includes base hits, walks, and hit by pitches. Reaching on an error or fielder's choice does not extend a reached-base streak.
