#18 Baseball's dominant pitching closes door on Anderson sweep

Salisbury, N.C. —- The 18th-ranked Catawba College baseball team finished off the sweep of Andesron in its opening South Atlantic Conference series of the season behind a dominant pitching performance at Newman Park on Sunday.

TEAM STATISTICS

- Catawba out-hit Anderson 11-3

- The Catawba Indians recorded all five extra-base hits

- The Trojans left five runners on base; Catawba stranded nine

- The Catawba Indians recorded both stolen bases in the game

- Catawba's pitchers threw nine shutout innings, allowing just three hits and three walks with five strikeouts; Anderson's staff allowed nine earned runs on 11 hits and seven walks, striking out eight

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

- Casey Gouge earned the win on the mound, tossing seven shutout innings with three hits allowed with two walks and four Ks

- Brandon Rodgers and Joe Burleyson finished the shutout with two hitless frames

- Hunter Atkins was a homer shy of the cycle, going 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored

- Sam Hunter went 2-for-3 with a double, two walks, two RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base

- Nathan Chrismon recorded a pair of hits with an RBI and a run scored

HOW IT HAPPENED

FOURTH INNING

- Dylan Driver was hit by a pitch and Hunter's double put runners on second and third with nobody out in the fourth

- James Dunlap's RBI groundout and Cole Hales' sac fly put the first two runs on the board for Catawba

FIFTH INNING

- Catawba once again got their first two runners on in the fifth inning; Chrismon's bunt moved runners up to second and third with one out

- Hunter's two-out, two-RBI single doubled Catawba's lead to 4-0

- Hunter stole second and Dunlap drove him home with a bloop single

SIXTH INNING

- Catawba got two singles to start the third straight inning in the sixth

- Atkins' two-run triple to right center broke the game open, 7-0

- Chrismon followed with an RBI double off the wall

- After a pitching change, Driver took the first pitch down the left field line to open up the 9-0 advantage they would ride until the end

GAME NOTES

- Jim Gantt's 997th career win

- Driver's double brings him to 47 for his career, tying him with 2024 Catawba Athletics Hall of Famer Craige Lyerly for 17th all-time

- Gouge has allowed one earned run on seven hits in his last 13 innings with 14 strikeouts, lowering his season-long ERA to 2.00

- Atkins was a homer shy of Catawba's sixth cycle and first since 2016

UP NEXT

- Catawba starts up a nine-game road trip on Tuesday, traveling to 11th-ranked Mount Olive for a 3 p.m. first pitch