April 6, 2008

Box Score

On Sunday (Apr. 6) afternoon in Georgetown, TX, the Southwestern University baseball team won one and lost one against the Austin College Kangaroos in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play to maintain second place in the conference's West Division.

Southwestern 8, Austin 4

The first game, a seven-inning contest, opened with the Roos scoring a pair of runs on three hits a Pirate error. SU came out in the bottom half of the first with Todd Boone (Huntsville, TX/Huntsville HS) drawing a leadoff walk followed by Richard Falcone (Houston, TX/Westside HS) getting hit by a pitch. Junior Michael Murphy (Houston, TX/Austin HS) then singled to right to bring Boone around to score and make it a 2-1 game.

In the third inning, Falcone and Murphy led off with a pair of walks to set the table for a one-out RBI single from Eric Gonzales (Austin, TX/Bowie HS) and then a two-run triple off the bat of senior Jamie Herrmann (Houston, TX/Westside HS). Leading 4-2 heading in to the fifth, SU starter Chris Churchwell (Kingwood, TX/Kingwood HS) gave up a two-run homer to tie things at 4-4.

In the Pirate half of the inning, Matt Clark (Spring, TX/Klein HS) led off with a double followed by John Wooten (Columbus, TX/Columbus HS) reaching on an error. Junior Brent McMullen (Irving, TX/Nimitz HS) lined a single in to left field to go ahead 5-4. Two batters later, Murphy singled in a pair of runs to make it 7-4. SU added one more on a sacrifice fly from Gonzales. The Pirates were able to keep AC off the board in the final two frames.

Murphy was a perfect 3-3 in the game while also drawing a walk. The junior led the Bucs with three RBI. Falcone also reached base every time up, going 1-1 with two walks and one hit by pitch. He scored twice. Both Herrmann and Gonzales drove in two runs while Clark had two hits in three at bats.

The winning pitcher was Churchwell who picked up his first win as a Pirate. He went five innings, allowing four runs with just two of them earned. He scattered five hits while striking out two and walking two. Matt Gruetzner (Bastrop, TX/Bastrop HS) and Joe Lange (Houston, TX/Lamar HS) each pitched one scoreless inning in relief.

Austin 5, Southwestern 3

In the second game, Austin College jumped out to a 3-0 lead with a two-run home run and a sacrifice fly. The Roos got another run in the third on a solo home run. Southwestern did not get its first hit until the third inning when Kyle Belski (Missouri City, TX/Dulles HS) drove a solo homer to left.

The Pirates gave up one more home run in the four to make it a 5-1 ball game. SU had just two hits through seven innings but in the eighth Landon Durham (Pearland, TX/Pearland HS) led off with a double to right center and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Wooten. In the ninth, Mark Noggle (Houston, TX/Clear Lake HS) drew a one-out walk, followed by a Belski single. Then, McMullen entered as a pinch hitter for the second-straight game and drove in a run with a single down the line past the third baseman. Later in the inning, the Pirates got men on second and third with two outs but the game ended there with a strikeout.

First-year Brantley Freeman (Mansfield, TX/Mansfield HS) went eight innings and gave up five earned runs on nine hits. The southpaw struck out seven while walking four. His record falls to 2-4.

At the plate, Belski was the only Pirate with multiple hits as he went 2-4 at the plate with one run scored and one batted in. Murphy was 1-4 at the plate but managed to extend his hitting streak to nine games.

With the split, Southwestern now stands alone in second place in the SCAC West Division with a 7-5 record. SU is assured a spot in the SCAC Divisional Tournament and the Pirates are now playing for seeding at the tournament. On the year, the Pirates are 17-17. Austin College, meanwhile, stands at 15-19, 7-9.

Southwestern hosts Hendrix College next weekend for the final series of the season with the first game being played Friday (Apr. 11) at 3:00 pm.