BECKLEY, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team was eliminated from the Mountain East Conference Tournament as it was dealt a 5-3 loss by Shepherd Friday night at Epling Stadium.
The Mountain Lions end the season at 33-17.
CU was unable to hold onto a fifth-inning lead of 3-1 as the Rams scored the go-ahead run in the sixth and added an insurance run in the eighth.
Senior catcher
Jordan Clark recorded his 200
thcareer RBI with a third-inning single that plated sophomore infielder
Anthony Stehlin after he reached on an infield single to lead off the inning.
Tied at 1-1 in the bottom of the fifth, senior outfielder
Evan Webb collected one of his four hits to start the inning before racing to third on Clark's double. The next batter, junior infielder
Nathan Neff, recorded a sacrifice fly to give the Mountain Lions their first lead of the tournament. Junior outfielder
Ryan Fralin was able to get Clark home with a groundout to extend the lead to two runs during the next at-bat.
But, the lead was short lived for Concord as the first four Shepherd batters reached to start the top of the sixth that saw it tie the contest. After a strikeout, the Rams took the lead on a single to right field with one out. A groundout and a strikeout from freshman pitcher
Sidney Willis got CU out of the jam.
Concord got the tying run on base in the bottom of the sixth with a one-out Webb single, but could not produce further action.
The Mountain Lions were retired 1-2-3 in the eighth and ninth innings.
Senior pitcher
Troy Beckner tossed five innings as he was lifted after two batters into the sixth. Beckner allowed two earned runs and struck out four to finish his career with 235 strikeout—a program record. Sophomore pitcher
Logan Morrison (6-4) was charged with the loss in 0.1 inning of work.
Webb and Clark (two hits) each finished with multi-hit games.
Friday marked the final collegiate game for Beckner, Clark, pitcher
Will Guay, infielder
Brett Simmons, infielder
Ian Southcott, pitcher
Noah Tucker, Webb and pitcher
James Wood—a senior class that won 108 games.