BECKLEY, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team had its season end Friday afternoon at the Mountain East Conference Tournament as it fell to West Liberty 8-7 at Epling Stadium.
The Mountain Lions finish the season with a 23-27 record while WLU improves to 28-22 overall.
CU jumped on the board in the third inning as sophomore infielder
Chad Frazier raced home on a West Liberty error, but the Hilltoppers answered back with an RBI single in the fifth to knot the game at 1-1.
However, Concord rallied for two runs in the bottom of the frame as senior infielder
Andrew Seigel hustled home on a wild pitch and Frazier scored on redshirt freshman
Jordan Clark's RBI fielder's choice.
With the Maroon and Gray still ahead 3-1 in the sixth, WLU rallied for seven runs, all unearned, as Concord committed three errors in the frame and West Liberty's Mike Adams drove a three-run double to the right field wall to give the Hilltoppers an 8-3 lead when CU should have been out of the inning.
But there was no quit in the Mountain Lions as they plated a run in the seventh and eighth to cut into the deficit, 8-5. Down by the same margin in the ninth, Concord received RBI hits from senior outfielder
Charles Goss and Seigel to get within one run. With the tying run on base, West Liberty's Mark Smyth was able to retire the final batter of the game as Concord lost 8-7.
CU was led offensively by Seigel and sophomore catcher
Paul Williams who each had three hits. Additionally, Seigel swiped his 20
th base of the season to give him the all-time career record at Concord for steals with 88.
Clark, Goss, Seigel and redshirt freshman infielder
Trevor Wiersma each drove in a run in the loss while Frazier scored three runs.
Senior pitcher
Chris Kelly (7-6) was the hard luck loser in the game as he gave up eight runs, but just one earned run in 5.2 innings.
Smyth earned his ninth win of the season as pitched a complete game, throwing 171 pitches. Adams was 2-for-4 with three RBI for the Hilltoppers.
Friday marked the final collegiate games for Cassada, pitcher
Damon Frazier, Goss, Kelly, Seigel and senior infielder
Brad Sullivan.
In four seasons as a class, Concord won 126 games and won the 2013 conference championship.
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