April 19, 2009

Final Stats

ELON, N.C.- The North Carolina Central University baseball team showed true character on Saturday night at Latham Park in taking on the Elon University Phoenix. Coming off its biggest loss of the season on Friday night 22-0, NCCU came back with a tremendous effort only to fall 10-5 in game two of the weekend set.

The trouble began for NCCU from the get-go, when both freshman Akeem Hood and Oliver Jenkins reached base, Hood on an error and Jenkins on a bunt single. The Eagles would see that chance fall by the wayside when David Scott bounced into a 4-3 double play and Blake Murray grounded out to third base.

With NCCU blowing the early opportunity, the Elon Phoenix came out swinging, by loading the bases with no outs. Elon ended up scoring five runs in the first stanza, three of which came off the bat of Elon's Justin Hilt who hit a three-run home run to left, giving the Phoenix the early 5-0 advantage.

The third inning saw Elon with another great chance to put the Eagles away thanks to four unforced errors by NCCU. Elon added three more runs to the board putting the tally at 8-0 after three complete innings.

Just when you thought the contest was over, the Eagles battled right back in the fourth. Jenkins reached base on an error to start the frame off. David Scott hit a groundball up the middle for a base-hit which advanced Jenkins over to third with no outs. Murray grounded into the third double play of the contest driving in the Eagles first run in 17 innings though NCCU still trailed 8-1.

After a scoreless bottom half of the fourth for Elon, the Eagles struck again. Freshman Anthony Wilson and junior Kurt Wilson started off the frame with back-to-back singles. A groundout by Justin Goodson moved the runners to second and third, and senior Robert Landis drove in Anthony Wilson on an RBI groundout. Hood drove in his ninth RBI of the season with an infield single that brought home Kurt Wilson to cut the deficit to 8-3.

Elon's Zeth Stone led off the bottom of the sixth with his second triple of the series, and was driven home by Harry Austin to put Elon back up 9-3. The Phoenix had runners on second and third with no outs, and sophomore Brandon Oatis struck out the next three batters to retire the side in the sixth.

The final Elon run came in the bottom of the eighth when leftfielder Pat Irvine drove in Austin from second base on a single to right field adding to the Phoenix advantage 10-3 after eight innings.

NCCU plated the final runs of the night off of Kurt Wilson's two-run bomb, his first of the season, to left center that bounced off the scoreboard at Latham Park, cutting the margin to its final tally at 10-5.

The Eagles (5-23) have lost four in a row since Monday's 12-7 win over Coppin State in 11 innings, and NCCU pitcher Douglas Dalley (0-6) took the loss. Dalley gave up six earned runs and walked six in 4.1 innings.

Anthony Wilson and Kurt Wilson were responsible for four of the five Eagle runs, Kurt had two RBI for NCCU on the night.

Up next, NCCU travels to Campbell University for doubleheader action starting at 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21.