ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team picked up two Mountain East Conference wins over Fairmont State, 9-5 and 6-3, Sunday afternoon at Anderson Field.
Timely hitting and stellar fielding led the Mountain Lions to the pair of victories and improving their record to 5-5 overall and 4-4 in the MEC. Fairmont State drops to 1-7 overall and 1-5 in the league.
Game 1: Concord 9 – Fairmont State 5Concord erased a 3-1 third inning by exploding for five runs in the bottom of the third inning to take a 6-3 lead that it would not relinquish.
Senior first baseman
Ryan Johnston had the biggest hit of the inning and the game when he hit a ball over the Fairmont State's Josh Wine's head in center field that scored senior outfielder
Jerrod Groves, junior outfielder
Andrew Seigel and junior shortstop
Brad Sullivan.
Senior outfielder
T.J. Brockway and freshman outfielder
Andy Szamski also added RBI in the third inning.
The Mountain Lions added two more runs in the fifth inning on an RBI double from Brockway and a sacrifice fly from junior catcher
Charles Goss.
The final CU run came in the sixth inning as redshirt freshman infielder
Chad Frazier scored on a Fighting Falcon error.
Junior pitcher
Chris Kelly tossed 4.2 innings as he improved to 2-1 on the season. The Grundy, Virginia struck out three hitters in his work Sunday. Senior pitcher
Bryant Pybus earned his first save of the season by pitching the final 2.1 innings as he allowed three base runners and struck out two batters.
Concord hit 5-for-12 with runners on base and hit 4-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
Game 2: Concord 6 - Fairmont State 3A six-run second inning was more than enough for the Mountain Lions as they won by three runs.
Brockway, Frazier, Johnston and Seigel all had one RBI each in the inning with Sullivan driving in two runs on a one-out single.
Besides the outstanding hitting from CU, which they pounded out its most hits of the season with 10, the Mountain Lions continued the trend of efficient fielding in game two.
The midfield infield tandem of Frazier and Sullivan turned two double plays to assist sophomore pitcher
Zach Kelly to his first win of the season.
However, the most impressive twin killing of the afternoon came on a diving play from Johnston as he snuffed out a squeeze bunt attempt in the second inning and doubled off the runner at third base to end a Fairmont State scoring threat.
Z. Kelly faced three batters over the minimum in his first six innings of work. The Daleville, Virginia native ran into some trouble in the seventh inning before redshirt freshman
Damon Frazier shut down the FSU scoring to give CU a 6-3 win in the nightcap.
All nine batters reached base in game two for the Mountain Lions with eight different players getting a hit.
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