ATHENS, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team dropped a non-conference contest to Winston-Salem State, 13-10, Tuesday afternoon at Anderson Field.
After a back-and-forth contest for the first seven innings, WSSU (27-12) was able to plate three runs as it took the lead for good in the bottom of the eight.
The Rams' Cole Parks opened the game by hitting a grand slam in the first inning. But, the Mountain Lions (23-10) battled back to tie the game at 5-5 in the second inning as junior outfielder
Ryan Fralin drove in two runs with a double to right center field. Three batters later, senior infielder
Brett Simmons scored Fralin and freshman
Josh Adkins on a ground single up the middle to knot the game.
Two innings later, CU was able to take its first lead of the afternoon. Simmons and sophomore infielder
Anthony Stehlin started the inning with back-to-back infield singles and advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch. Junior catcher
Jakob Divers brought both in with a looping single into shallow right field.
Winston-Salem State came right back in the top of the fifth with three runs, including a second Parks' home run, to regain an 8-7 lead. The Rams added two more runs in the top of the sixth to take a 10-7 edge.
However, the Mountain Lions fought back in the bottom of the frame. Junior outfielder
Adam Linkous drew a lead-off walk before advancing on a Stehlin walk. With the tying run at the plate, Webb blasted his fifth home run of the season out to center field to square the game at 10-10.
WSSU rallied for three runs in the eighth to take a 13-10 advantage.
In its final two at-bats, Concord was only able to get a total of three batters on base as it fell by three runs.
CU's offense tallied 14 hits on the day as senior catcher
Jordan Clark and Stehlin each had three. Simmons added two hits and two RBI.
The Mountain Lions used six different pitchers. Freshman pitcher
Max Arbogast (1-1) was tagged with the loss as he threw 1.1 innings that carried into the eighth inning. Sophomore pitcher
Spencer Hoyt was the most effective CU pitcher as he got the first 12 outs of the game with half coming via the strikeout. Hoyt allowed an unearned run on two hits on the mound.
Concord travels to Glenville State 1:00 p.m. Friday for the start of a four-game Mountain East Conference series.
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