BREAKING EVEN

CU CONCLUDES HOME SCHEDULE WITH SPLIT AGAINST WEST LIBERTY

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If the Concord Baseball team's WVIAC seven-inning doubleheader against West Liberty was decided on total runs, it would have been a tie.

Which, in essence, it was.

Both the Mountain Lions and Hilltoppers scored 12 times in splitting the Tuesday afternoon twinbill at Anderson Field. The visitors won the first game, 5-0, with CU rebounding to take the second game, 12-7.

Concord finished 13-9 at home this season. The Mountain Lions have five regular season games remaining, all on the road.

GAME ONE
BOXSCORE / PLAY-BY-PLAY

Both teams missed on early scoring chances.  Concord left two runners on base in each of the first two innings, and WLU rapped out three hits without a run in the top of the 4th – the Mountain Lions  turned a 4-6-3 double play, and a Zach Cloxton-Keith Morrisroe-Ian Humphrey relay got Ryan Zelinski at home plate for the third out.

West Liberty exploited a CU error to break against starting pitcher Jacob Mays (right) in the 5th. Rudy Nagy led off with a grounder that Concord 3B Josh Wenger misplayed; with the extra out, the inning stayed alive and Trent Chapman later broke the scoreless tie with a two-run double to left.

The Hilltoppers took advantage of another Mountain Lion miscue to add another run in the top of the 6th. Zane Madden led off and reached second base on error by Cloxton in left field. Zelinski singled, moving Madden to third.  Jim Sams grounded into a double play, but Madden scored to give WLU a 3-0 lead.

West Liberty tacked on two insurance runs with two outs in the 7th. Chapman singled, and came around to score on Josh Nagel's single. Madden drove in Nagel with a double.

Hilltoppers pitcher Josh Graham allowed only five hits in a complete game victory. Mays gave up 12 hits, but no walks and just three earned runs in suffering the loss.

Randy Beard went 2-4 with a double to pace the Concord offense.


GAME TWO

BOXSCORE / PLAY-BY-PLAY

West Liberty picked up where it left off, scoring twice off CU starting pitcher Brandon Proctor in the top of the 1st. Chapman hit a home run on the first pitch of the game, and Sams brought in the other run with a single later in the inning.

But the Mountain Lions roared back in the bottom of the 1st. CU sent 13 men to the plate, chased Hilltoppers starting pitcher Drew Peterson after only 1/3 of an inning, and scored eight times to take the lead for good.

Beard (above) led off with home run, and Morrisroe followed with a solo shot of his own to tie the game.
Mays walked, and was forced out when Wenger rolled into a fielder's choice, but the next eight Mountain Lions would reach base.
An error on Nagel at third base put Nick Sydnor aboard, and Peterson walked Kyle Webb to load the bases.
Raphael Sanchez stroked a two-run single to left to put CU ahead 4-2.
Peterson hit Clay Riggleman with a pitch to reload the bases, and the Hilltoppers replaced Peterson with Andrew Hapney.
Humphrey to hit into a fielder's choice that forced out Webb at the plate for the second out. But Beard laced a two-run single, scoring Sanchez and Riggleman to extend Concord's lead to 6-2.
Morrisroe singled, loading the bases again, and Mays capped the scoring frenzy with a two-run single up the middle.

Proctor (right) settled down on the mound, and the Mountain Lions backed him up with two more runs in the bottom of the 4th. Sydnor led off with a double, and was on third when Riggleman hit an infield single. The base hit brought in Sydnor (the current WVIAC Player of the Week), and Riggleman came in to score on a throwing error by Hapney.

Proctor ran out of gas in the 5th, allowing a walk and two singles that resulted in a run, and Dustin Nuckels came on in relief.  In a two-on, two-out situation, Nagy hit Nuckels' first pitch for a three-run home run that made the score 10-6.

The Mountain Lions countered with a run in the bottom of the inning -- Beard led off with a triple and scored on Morrisroe's sacrifice fly.
Concord added its final run in the 6th, when Sanchez doubled and came in on Ian Humphrey's RBI single.

West Liberty closed within 12-7 in the top of the 7th. Madden led off with a double and scored on Sams' one-out RBI single. Nuckels fanned Nagy for the second out, but gave up a single to Dillon Mangino and a walk to Mike Johnson to load the bases.
Concord head coach Andrew Wright brought Will Zuspan in from the bullpen, and the freshman got Andrew Henry to fly out to end the game.

Beard again led the Concord lineup, going 3-5 with a homer, a triple, three RBIs and three runs scored. With his double in the first game, the sophomore outfielder hit for the cycle on the day, finishing 5-9.
Morrisroe and Sanchez had two hits and two RBIs each.

Proctor worked through control problems – allowing seven hits and four walks – to get the pitching win.


Up next for Concord is an important three-game WVIAC Southern Division series at Mercer County rival Bluefield State on Saturday and Sunday, April 30 and May 1.
The Mountain Lions and Big Blues will play a seven-inning doubleheader on Saturday and a single nine-inning game on Sunday. First pitch both days is scheduled for 1:00 pm in Bluefield, WV.


^{(statistics provded by Concord SID GA Brandon Besl)}

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