GETTING THERE

CU WITHSTANDS DRAMATIC FINISHES TO SWEEP D&E

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There's an old saying, “it's not how you start, it's how you finish.”

For Concord's Baseball team against Davis & Elkins on Saturday afternoon, it was a matter of being able to finish.

The Mountain Lions endured two big 7th-inning rallies by the Senators, and put together one of their own, in sweeping D&E 8-7 and 12-9 in a WVIAC Southern Division seven-inning doubleheader at Anderson Field.

The twinbill took the place of a planned three-game series at Elkins on Friday and Saturday. Rain and wet grounds forced a game to be removed from the set, and for the teams to move to Athens.

^{(unofficial totals)}

GAME ONE	R	H	E	LOB
D & E	7	11	1	5
CONCORD	8	12	2	7

^{WP:  Ryan Weatherholtz
LP:  Josh Kehr}

CU took a 7-3 lead into the 6th inning when the Senators began a comeback. A solo home run by Matt Barr – his second of the game – made the score 7-4, and D&E would tie the score with three runs in the 7th.
Mitch Turner led off with a solo home run.  Anthony Ragos was hit by a pitch and stole second. CU pitcher Ryan Weatherholtz struck out Brenton Kopecek, but walked Evan Gazza – Weatherholtz's only walk of the game – then saw Ragos steal third.
Weatherholtz threw a wild pitch that scored Ragos and moved Gazza, representing the tying run, into scoring position.
Weatherholtz struck out Marcus Weese for the second out, but Eric Doyle squared the contest with an RBI single.  Barr flied out to center to end the inning.

The Senators pulled starting pitcher Zach McElroy after six innings and brought in Josh Kehr.
Nick Sydnor greeted Kehr by lining a double off the wall in dead center, on the fly, putting the winning run in scoring position with nobody out.
Kehr got Bret Blevins to pop out, but Kyle Webb moved Sydnor up a base with a groundout to first.
Raphael Sanchez punched an infield single to the hole at shortstop that brought in Sydnor with the winning run.

The Senators began the game with a run in the top of the 1st, but Concord jumped on McElroy for five runs in the bottom of the inning. With one out, Keith Morrisroe singled to left on a 1-2 pitch; Jacob Mays popped up for the second out, but then the Mountain Lions busted out.
Josh Wenger doubled just inside the line in left to bring in Morrisroe and tie the game.
Sydnor lined a one-hop triple off the wall in right, scoring Wenger.
Bret Blevins doubled into the left field corner, scoring Sydnor.
Webb fought back from a 1-2 deficit to draw a walk to the keep the inning alive, bringing up Sanchez. The freshman crushed a double off the wall in left, scoring Blevins and Webb and putting CU ahead 5-1.

Barr hit his first solo home run in the 2nd to get D&E within 5-2, but Concord again repled quickly.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Beard led off with a ground rule double to left. Morrisroe brought him in with an RBI single, then stole second. Mays advanced Morrisroe with a grounder to second, ahead of an RBI double by Wenger. Concord led 7-2.

The Senators tallied a run in the 3rd – on a Turner double and an RBI single by Kopecek – to make the score 7-3.

Weatherholtz got the complete game victory for CU, allowing seven runs (six earned) on 11 hits. He walked just one and struck out 11. He improved to 4-4 for the season.

Morrisroe and Sydnor each went 2-3 to led the Concord offense. Morrisroe scored twice, was hit by a pitch and stole a base; Syndor tripled, doubled, walked and scored twice.
Wenger hit four rocket shots in finishing 2-4 with a pair of doubles, two RBIs and a run scored.

For D&E, Barr was 2-2 with his two solo shots and Ragos finished 2-2 with two stolen bases and two runs scored.




^{(unofficial totals)}

GAME TWO	R	H	E	LOB
D & E	9	12	1	10
CONCORD	12	13	0	5

^{WP:  Will Zuspan
LP:  Jared Winder}

The Mountain Lions again pounced quickly, reaching D&E starter Jared Winder for two runs in the bottom of the 1st.
With one out, Morrisroe beat out an infield single. With Mays up, CU head coach Andrew Wright put on the hit-and-run, and it paid off. Mays hit what would have likely been a routine ground ball to shortstop, but with the Senators infield moving, the seemingly harmless roller became a base hit.
One out later, Sydnor stroked a single to right to score Morrisroe and move Mays to third.
Another seemingly harmless play would bring in the second run. Windor had Sydnor apparently picked off, but a wayward throw toward second left him safe and brought in Mays to score.

However, CU starting pitcher Brandon Proctor put himself in trouble in the top of the 2nd. Barr led off with a single, and Treavor Dubiel drew a walk. Proctor got Brad Banzhoff to pop out, but walked Turner on four pitches.
Ragos hit a sacrifice fly for D&E's first run.
Proctor issued another four-pitch walk, this time to Kopecek, to reload the bases.
Gazza lined a two-run single to right that gave the Senators a 3-2 lead and ended Proctor's day.
Will Zuspan came in, struck out Weese to end the inning, and proceeded to keep the Senators off the scoreboard until the 7th.

Concord's lineup also responded well, re-taking the lead with another two-run rally in the bottom of the 2nd. Sanchez singled with one out and stole second; two batters later, Beard (left) crashed a double to left center that drove in Sanchez.
Morrisroe roped a single to left to bring in Beard and give Concord a 4-3 lead.

The Mountain Lions scored again in the 3rd, on Webb's two-out RBI triple.

CU tacked on three more in the 4th. Ian Humphrey led off with a first-pitch single to left and Beard sacrificed him to second. Morrisroe launched another RBI single to left, bringing in Humphrey, and motored to second on the throw to the plate. After Mays popped out, Wenger creamed a 1-2 pitch for an RBI triple to right center to score Morrisroe and give Concord a 7-3 lead.
Sydnor plated Wenger with a double off the wall to extend the lead to 8-3.

D&E changed pitchers in the 5th, but it did little to blunt the Concord lineup. Webb greeted reliever John Commins with an infield single; Sanchez blooped a double just inside the line in right field to score Webb.
Humphrey lofted another blooper – a single to right – that brought in Sanchez with CU's 10th run of the game.
Beard singled sharply to right, with Humphrey winding up at third. Beard stole second, and that 90-foot thievery would pay off. Morrisroe hit a sacrifice fly, scoring Humphrey, and Beard moved to third base. Mays hit a grounder to short, and Beard scampered in to score. Concord led 12-3.

Zuspan allowed the Senators only three singles between the 3rd and the 6th, but quickly ran out of gas in the 7th. Zuspan retired Weese on a fly out, but gave up four consecutive singles, including a two-run base hit by Banzhoff, and left the game with a 12-6.
Dustin Nuckels came in, but gave up back-to-back singles and a four-pitch walk to Kopecek that loaded the bases. Nuckels with Concord ahead 12-7.
Jacob Mays relieved Nuckels. He issued a four-pitch walk to Gazza, scoring Turner and making the score 12-8.
Weese, batting for the second time in the inning, hit a sacrifice fly to deep right that scored in Paris Ragan and brought the tying run up to bat. But Mays got Bryant Hines to fly out to Beard in deep center to end the game and allow Mountain Lions fans to exhale.

Morrisroe (right) went 3-3 with three RBIs and two runs scored to pace CU. For the day, the team captain was 5-6 with three RBIs, three runs scored and a stolen base.
Sydnor was 2-4 with a double, finishing the day 4-7 with two doubles, a triple and two runs scored.
Beard was 2-3 in game two, with a double, an RBI, two runs scored and a stolen base.

Zuspan got the win, improving to 2-2 on the season. The freshman allowed four runs and seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. Mays picked up his first save of the year.


Up next for Concord (17-22, 10-13) is the final home date of 2011, a WVIAC doubleheader against West Liberty on Tuesday, April 26 at Anderson Field. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 pm. Admission is free.

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