#6 Baseball takes down #20 Lenoir-Rhyne in clash of region titans

Salisbury, N.C. —- The 6th-ranked Catawba College baseball team took down 20th-ranked Lenoir-Rhyne in a non-conference battle to end the regular season in a matchup of the top two teams in the South Atlantic Conference standings at Newman Park on Tuesday afternoon.

TEAM STATISTICS

- Lenoir-Rhyne out-hit Catawba 9-8

- The Bears recorded all three extra-base hits in the game with both homers

- LR committed all three errors in the contest

- Lenoir-Rhyne left eight runners on base; the Catawba Indians stranded nine

- Catawba had the only two stolen bases in the game

- The Bears' pitchers allowed seven earned runs on eight hits and 10 walks, striking out two; Catawba's staff allowed seven runs on nine hits and five walks, striking out 12

INDIVIDUAL LEADERS

- Cole Hales was 2-for-4 with a walk, two RBI and a run scored

- Nathan Chrismon tallied three hits with two runs scored

- Dylan Driver singled, walked and scored twice

- Brandon Rodgers earned the win, tossing a scoreless seventh inning

- Hayden Simmerson picked up his nation-leading 14th save of the season, closing out the final two innings with two runs allowed with five strikeouts

HOW IT HAPPENED

FIRST INNING

- Driver singled to lead off the game and James Dunlap walked; Sam Hunter's sacrifice bunt moved them over to second and third with one out

- Hales' RBI groundout gave Catawba an early 1-0 lead

- A two-out error from the Bears allowed the Catawba Indians to score again, up 2-0

FOURTH INNING

- Chrismon and Sean Shelly singled to lead off the fourth, putting runners on the corners with nobody out

- The Bears forced a double play, but the run scored to push Catawba's advantage to 3-0

FIFTH INNING

- Sal Carricato got LR on the board in the fifth with a leadoff homer

- Michael Logan's RBI double down the line score one and put runners on second and third with still nobody out

- Seth Sharpe came in the game and struck out all three batters he faced to get out of the jam and maintain the Catawba lead

- Two two-out walks loaded the bases for Catawba in the bottom half

- Hunter scored on a wild pitch and Shelly drew a bases-loaded walk to push the lead back to three, 5-2

SIXTH INNING

- LR walked twice to start the sixth inning

- Logan launched a two-out homer to tie the game at 5

SEVENTH INNING

- Two walks and a hit-by-pitch loaded the bases again for Catawba with one down

- Matthew Connolly drove in a run on a groundout to the pitcher

- Ty Hubbard drove in another on a single to center field, but the potential third run of the inning was cut down at the plate, keeping Catawba's lead to 7-5

EIGHTH INNING

- Hales ripped an RBI base hit to center field and an error in the outfield allowed a second runner to score to push Catawba's lead to 9-5

NINTH INNING

- The Bears strung together three straight singles in a one-out rally to plate two runs and bring the tying run to the plate

- Simmerson struck out the final two batters he faced to strand the game-tying run at first base

UP NEXT

- Catawba begins its postseason run this weekend at Newman Park; top-seed Catawba takes on eighth-seed Newberry on Friday at 2 p.m.