March 05, 2006

Boxscore

LAURINBURG, NC—Junior outfielder Graham Wooten (Goldsboro, NC) blasted two home runs including the go-ahead bomb in the eighth inning, leading visiting Mount Olive to a 13-9 Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference baseball victory over host St. Andrews on Sunday at Clark Field.

The Knights, who won the conference series with 5-3 and 8-6 wins on Saturday, fell to 9-11 overall and 3-6 in the CVAC. The Trojans improved to 14-5 overall and 5-4 in the CVAC.

The two teams combined for 32 hits with Mount Olive holding an 18-14 hit advantage. St. Andrews had multiple chances to score more with 11 runners left on base.

Wooten wasted no time putting MOC on the scoreboard, hitting a three-run homer to center field in the opening frame.

St. Andrews cut the deficit to 3-2 with two runs in the bottom of the first. Senior Anthony Mehling (Pottsville, PA) drove in sophomore Michael Eastwood (Grantsboro, NC) on a sacrifice fly blooper in center. Junior Cliff Allred (Franklinville, NC) plated senior Will Clark ( Laurinburg, NC) for the second run with a single to left.

Trojan sophomore Josh Harrison (Wake Forest, NC) led off the second with a solo shot but the Knights answered with a Eastwood sacrifice fly that tagged up sophomore B.J. Horne (Hamlet, NC) in the bottom half.

A two-run, two-out rally by Mount Olive in the third extended the Trojan lead to 6-3. Freshman Patrick Ball doubled down the left-field line; Harrison doubled down the right-field line to score Ball; and sophomore Mike Kicia (Edmonton, Canada) capped the run with a triple to right that scored Harrison.

SAPC tied the game with a single run in the third and two runs in the fourth. Horne had a sac fly while Mehling had an RBI-triple and senior Greg Wrape (Hamlet, NC) had an RBI-single.

Mount Olive regained an 8-6 lead with two unearned runs in the fifth. Kicia highlighted the inning with a deep double to center.

The Knights scored in each of the first five innings after Eastwood scored Horne on a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the fifth. MOC added another run in the seventh before St. Andrews tied the game at 9-9 with a bases-loaded, two-run double to the left field gap by Mehling.

Wooten hit his second home run in the eight, by drilling the 3-2 offering over the right-center field wall. Mount Olive added two insurance runs in the ninth.

Wooten went 3-for-5 from the plate with five RBI and three runs. Kicia and sophomore David Cooper (Edmonton, Canada) also had three hits apiece while Harrison drove in three and scored three times. Trojan senior reliever Donald Huff (Titusville, FL) picked up the win allowing just one hit over the final 2 1/3 innings.

Clark had three singles for the Knights while Mehling drove in a team-high four runners. Senior starter Brad Smith (Riegelwood, NC), who tossed 115-pitches, took the loss after allowing 10 runs (eight earned) on 14 hits over 7.0 innings of work.

St. Andrews entertains non-conference foe North Greenville on Wednesday, with the doubleheader scheduled for a 1:00 p.m. start.

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