March 21, 2008

Final Stats

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Sophomore right-handed pitcher Carson Andrew gave the JU baseball team seven scoreless innings, but East Tennessee State scored five runs in the final two innings to steal a 5-3 victory in game two of an Atlantic Sun Conference series on Friday night at John Sessions Stadium.

With consecutive victories, the Buccaneers (4-15, 3-7 A-Sun) earned their first A-Sun series, while the Dolphins (13-6, 7-4 A-Sun) have lost four of their last five conference games after starting 6-0.

"We missed opportunities to extend our lead," said JU head coach Terry Alexander. "ETSU has been playing well since coming here and came back in the ninth inning to take the victory. I hated that such a good pitching performance by Carson had to go awry."

Junior Billy Schlee (0-1) was tagged with the loss in relief for JU after allowing four runs on two hits and striking out five. Andrew got the no-decision, despite allowing just three hits and fanning five batters. Andrew retired nine of the last 10 batters he faced and held ETSU hitless over 3.1 innings.

ETSU reliever Dustin Plumlee (1-1) earned the win by holding the Dolphins to two runs on five hits in three innings. Ben Andrews earned the save with a scoreless ninth inning, while starter Ty Sarchet took the no-decision after allowing just one unearned run on three hits and five strikeouts in five innings of work.

Kevin Ferreira, Kyle Fleming and Brad Simmons each had two hits and an RBI at the plate for JU. Ferreira also finished three stolen bases on the night.

Designated hitter Bart Roark sparked the Buccaneers' offense with doubles in his final two at-bats, while Nick Belcher and Danny Petro also added RBI hits to help the cause

Trailing 3-0 in the eighth inning, Roark led off with a double to left field off of Schlee. Roark scored two batters later on a groundout by Belcher.

Schlee struggled to start the ninth inning allowing a lead off walk to Troy Mendez and hitting Paul Hoilman. Petro, who was hitless in his last seven official at-bats, delivered a double to left field to score Mendez and make it a one run game.

Schlee was lifted for Sean Green, who hit his first batter to load the bases. Roark would secure his second double to right field and give the Buccaneers a 4-3 advantage. Bubba Herbold would later score on a wild pitch to cap off the scoring.

Fleming got a one-out walk in the ninth inning, but Andrews retired the next two batters to secure the save.

The Dolphins led initially, 1-0, in the first inning from an infield RBI single by Fleming. Ferreira drew four-pitch walk to start the inning. Within the next three pitches, Ferreira moved over to third by way of a stolen base and a passed ball. Fleming followed with a ground ball deep in the hole at first base and outran Hoilman trying to tag the bag, which allowed Ferreira to score easily.

In the seventh inning, Ferreira and Simmons each drove in a run to extend JU's advantage to 3-0. Chuck Opachich began the inning with a hit to right field. He moved over to second from a sacrifice bunt by Tony Bernazard and scored on the next at-bat from a single up the middle by Ferreira.

Ferreria stole second and moved to third as Fleming reached on a throwing error. In the next at-bat, Simmons dropped down a bunt to score Ferreira on the suicide squeeze.

JU and ETSU will play the final game of the series on Saturday at 1 p.m. at John Sessions Stadium. The contest can be seen live through ASun.TV on JUDolphins.com.