WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team split two Mountain East Conference games with West Liberty at Kovalick Field Friday afternoon.
The Mountain Lions are 10-12 overall and 4-2 in the league while West Liberty is 10-6 overall and 5-1 against conference foes.
Game 1: Concord 5 – West Liberty 0
The Mountain Lions plated runs in the second, third and fourth innings, and sophomore pitcher
Troy Beckner threw seven shutout innings to propel Concord to a game one win.
Sophomore catcher
Jordan Clark launched his first home run of the season, a solo shot, in the second inning to get the scoring started.
Sophomore infielder
Trevor Wiersma and junior catcher
Paul Williams came up with timely hits in the third as Williams singled to score junior outfielder
Oscar Garcia while Wiersma drove a double into the outfield to score Williams.
In the fourth inning, freshman infielder
Nathan Neff plated Clark and freshman infielder
Jakob Divers with his own two-run single.
Beckner (4-0) continued his recent string of solid pitching by allowing four hits, walking two and striking out five batters over the course of seven innings. The Roanoke, Virginia native ran his scoreless innings streak to 14 innings. In his last four starts that cover 26 innings, Beckner has allowed one earned run on 14 hits while fanning 16 batters.
The 14-inning scoreless streak for Beckner is the longest for a CU pitcher since Ryan Weatherholtz tossed 21.1 innings of scoreless ball during the 2014 season.
Clark went 2-for-4 at the plate with two runs scored. Neff tallied two RBI in the win.
Game 2: West Liberty 11 – Concord 3
The Hilltoppers scored 10 runs in the fourth inning to take command of the game on their way to a game two win.
Just like game one, CU was first to score as Divers brought in Wiersma on an RBI single in the second inning.
After nine of the first 12 WLU batters were retired by senior
Austin Southcott in the first three innings, West Liberty broke through with 10 runs in the fourth, however, only three of the runs were earned.
In the top of the ninth, Frazier and Wiersma both notched RBI to draw Concord to within 11-3.
Neff paced the offense with three hits while Frazier and Wiersma each had two hits.
Southcott (2-3) was charged with the loss in 3.2 innings. The right-handed pitcher allowed six hits, three earned runs while striking out two. Freshman pitcher
Trent Abernathy pitched 4.1 innings of relief as he struck out a career-best seven batters.
CU continues its road trip 12:00 p.m. Saturday with a doubleheader at Wheeling Jesuit.
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