ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team took two games from West Virginia State, 5-3 and 10-9, to clinch a series victory over the Yellow Jackets Sunday afternoon at Anderson Field in Mountain East Conference play.
By going 3-1 in the series, the Mountain Lions improve to 18-15 overall and 11-5 in the league while WVSU drops to 12-18 overall and 5-11 versus conference foes.
Game 1: Concord 5 – West Virginia State 3
CU plated four runs in the sixth inning to erase a 3-1 deficit and win game one.
Junior infielder
Chad Frazier and junior catcher
Paul Williams both reached base to start the comeback in the sixth. Three batters later with Frazier and Williams both in scoring position and two outs, sophomore catcher
Jordan Clark blasted a single back through the middle to tie the game, 3-3.
With the game tied, the Mountain Lions weren't done in the sixth. After a base on balls to freshman infielder
Jakob Divers put runners at first and second, sophomore infielder Brett
Simmons hit his own single back through the box to plate pinch runner and freshman outfielder
Ryan Fralin. Freshman outfielder
Carter Shrewsbury capped the comeback with a looping single into right field to bring home Divers.
Senior pitcher
Eli Flynn pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to secure his fourth save of the season and a win for CU.
Freshman pitcher
Joseph Lowder improved to 2-3 on the season as he tossed six innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits and striking out four. Lowder pitched out of a couple of jams for the Mountain Lions to keep Concord within striking distance as he stranded nine WVSU runners on the day.
Perhaps the biggest escape of the game for the West Jefferson, North Carolina native was retiring WVSU's second and third hitters with runners on first and second and one out in the sixth. Lowder struck out Jared Hunt and forced Phil Mandt to line out at third base to freshman infielder
Nathan Neff.
Clark and Shrewsbury both had two hits in game one with Clark adding two RBI.
Game 2: Concord 10 – West Virginia State 9
CU held off West Virginia State in the final three innings of the game to sweep the Sunday doubleheader.
The Mountain Lions scored three early runs in the first with Clark doubling home two baserunners, sophomore outfielder
Evan Webb and sophomore infielder
Trevor Wiersma. Webb added his own RBI single in the frame, scoring Frazier.
The Yellow Jackets scored a run in the third inning to close within 3-1, but Concord scored at least one run in the next three innings.
Williams singled home Neff in the fourth. In the fifth, Clark launched a solo home run to left field to regain a 5-4 lead for the Maroon and Gray after WVSU had scored three runs in the top of the frame.
Three sixth-inning runs were produced by RBI singles from Frazier and Webb while Clark scampered home on a wild pitch to open up an 8-4 advantage.
West Virginia State refused to go away with three runs in the seventh, however, redshirt freshman pitcher
Cody Dooley stopped the rally for the Yellow Jackets. With runners on the corners and one out in an 8-7 game, Dooley induced an inning-ending around the horn double play to keep Concord in the lead.
CU added two runs in the eighth on run-scoring singles from Simmons and Webb.
However, WVSU would not go away in the ninth as it pushed two runs across and had the tying run at third base when Flynn forced a flyout to left field for the third and final out of the inning.
Senior pitcher
Nate Werner moved to 3-1 on the year as he scattered six hits and four runs over 5.1 innings while striking out four hitters.
Flynn locked down his second save of the day by pitching the ninth inning.
Webb was 4-for-5 at the plate with two runs scored and three RBI. Frazier added three hits with three runs scored.
Clark finished 3-for-3 with a double, a home run and three RBI.
Concord opens a four-game series with West Virginia Wesleyan 1:00 p.m. Friday at Anderson Field.
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