Box Score 1 |
Box Score 2 GAME ONE (HTML) I
GAME TWO (HTML)DURHAM, N.C. – North Carolina Central University missed numerous opportunities on Saturday afternoon dropping both contests to Bethune-Cookman University as the Wildcats took game one 9-3 and outlasted the maroon and gray to take the final game of the MEAC (Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference) doubleheader 3-2 in eight innings at the Durham Athletic Park.
With the wins for B-CU, the Wildcats have now taken over sole possession of first place in the Southern Division.
The first contest of the day saw NCCU give B-CU some help in taking a 7-0 lead through the first four innings, while the Eagles left five runners on base in the early going. The Wildcats used a four run third inning to set the tone.
Trailing 7-0 in the fifth, the maroon and gray offense awoke to plate three runs highlighted by a two RBI double by freshman Carlos Ortiz (Cleveland, Ohio) after Kory Wood (Spring Lake, N.C.) ripped an RBI single to score the Eagles' first run of the afternoon.
That was as close as NCCU got in game one dropping the contest 9-3 as Ortiz led the maroon and gray with a 3-for-4 effort at-the-dish. Freshman outfielder Bryant Battle (Greenville, N.C.) finished the first game 2-for-3 on the day with a walk.
Game two was an old fashioned pitching duel between B-CU's Montana Durapau and NCCU's Terry McNabb (Davidson, Sask.) and offense was extremely rare in this one.
After a one out double in the top of the first by Bryant Munoz, McNabb settled in to get 17-of-the-next-20 batters out. Conversely, the MEAC's top pitcher Durapau didn't allow the first hit of the game until the bottom of the third frame, but the maroon and gray still left four runners on base through the first three frames.
The play of the day took place in the top of the sixth inning on a routine grounder to Kehagias, who flung it over to first a tad wide of the bag as sophomore Christian Triplett (Wilkesboro, N.C.) fell over to make the play, keeping his foot on the bag. Triplett then rolled over and threw the ball from his backside and gunned Shaun McCarty at third base as the fans in attendance went bizerk.
B-CU plated two runs in the top of the seventh inning on back-to-back hits by Eros Modena and Jose Carballo as the Wildcats seemed to have clinched the twinbill sweep with Durapau on-the-hill.
After two hits in succession in the bottom of the seventh, the maroon and gray put the first run on the board on a Kehagias sacrifice fly, and knotted it up at 2-2 on Zack Lee's RBI groundout.
B-CU made a 3-2 in the eighth as the Wildcat first baseman Eric Sams came around to score on Jake Welch's RBI single. Battle's throw home was on target but Dey couldn't hang on.
The final inning saw freshman Conrad Kovalcik (Detriot, Mich) strike out with a man on second base and two outs as B-CU took both games of thee twinbill, taking game two 3-2 in extra innings.
NCCU (14-21-1, 9-7 MEAC) will look to salvage the final game of the series between these two beginning at 12:45 p.m. on the Denny's of Durham Pregame Show as Chris Hooks and Glenn Frye with call the action from the DAP.
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