ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team picked a pair of one-run victories versus Mountain East Conference opponent Fairmont State, 4-3 and 9-8, Monday afternoon at Anderson Field.
Freshman outfielder
Andy Szamski powered the CU (7-5, 6-4 MEC) offense after finishing the doubleheader 3-for-7 with a run scored and four RBI to push him into the team lead with seven for the season.
Game 1: Concord 4 – Fairmont State 3 (Nine Innings)The Mountain Lions erased a 3-2 deficit in the seventh inning to force extra innings where junior catcher
Charles Goss came away with the game-winning hit in the ninth.
Fairmont State (1-9, 1-7 MEC) led for the duration of the game until CU's comeback in the seventh.
In CU's final opportunity to tie the game in the seventh, junior shortstop
Brad Sullivan walked and advanced to third via a wild pitch and a groundout from senior outfielder
Jerrod Groves. Down to his last strike with two outs, senior first baseman
Ryan Johnston ripped a triple into the right center field gap that easily scored Sullivan from third, knotting the game at 3-3.
Both Fairmont State and CU got runners into scoring position in the eighth inning, but could not get the go-ahead run home.
After Groves was hit by a pitch and stole second in the bottom of the ninth, FSU elected to intentionally walked Johnston. However, both runners would move up a base on a balk from Fairmont State's Drew Hetzel, resulting in the intentional walking of senior outfielder
T.J. Brockway. With the bases loaded and only one out, Goss slapped a base hit into the outfield that gave CU the walk-off win.
Along with Goss and Johnston, junior infielder
Holt Cassada and Szamski all tallied one RBI.
Freshman pitcher
Reece Edwards tossed three innings of scoreless relief as he picked up his first collegiate win. CU starter senior
Barinder Rakkar tossed six innings, giving up three earned runs.
Game 2: Concord 9 – Fairmont State 8The nightcap turned into a slugfest between the teams as they combined to go 14-for-26 with runners in scoring positions.
Concord jumped out to a 5-1 lead as they registered five runs in the second inning, highlighted by a three-run double off the bat of Szamski.
FSU rallied to score the next four runs to even the game at 5-5. In the back-and-forth affair, the Mountain Lions plated the next four runs, including three in the fifth.
Cassada, redshirt freshman infielder
Chad Frazier and Sullivan each had RBI singles in the fifth inning.
The Fighting Falcons crawled back into the game by answering with three runs in the sixth inning. But, redshirt freshman
Damon Frazier extinguished the FSU rally by pitching 1.1 innings of relief to earn his team-leading third save and second in as many days.
Sullivan tallied the second three-hit game of the season for any Concord player as he went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBI. Five other Mountain Lions had two hits in the contest as CU pounded out 14 hits, and 12 of them coming with two outs.
Sophomore pitcher
Eli Flynn earned the win in a relief appearance.
By winning both contests on Monday, Concord swept the four-game regular season series with FSU.
The Mountain Lions are next slated to play a nine-inning game at Wingate 5:00 p.m. Tuesday
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