ELKINS, W.Va.- The Concord University baseball team finished off its second straight four-game sweep as it clipped Davis & Elkins, 7-4 and 3-1, Sunday afternoon in Mountain East Conference play at Harpertown Field.
The Mountain Lions are now 28-12-1 this season and 17-7 against the conference. D&E is 6-30 overall and 3-21 in the MEC
Game 1 – Concord 7 – Davis & Elkins 4
The Mountain Lions jumped out to a 4-0 lead on Davis & Elkins in the first inning and rode the momentum to a victory.
Three straight runners reached with one out in the first before junior infielder
Daniel Layne opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly to bring in freshman infielder/pitcher
MJ Hunter. A two-out double from freshman catcher
Joey Duffer added to the CU lead before sophomore infielder
Michael Dupont extended the rally with a two-run single.
The Senators used a three-run third inning to crawl back to within 4-3 of Concord before the Maroon and Gray used a three-run fifth inning to resort a four-run advantage.
Fifth-year senior infielder
Anthony Stehlin led off the inning with his third home run of the season. Hunter and junior infielder
Kyle Keenan followed with back-to-back singles before sophomore catcher/infielder
Chris Satcher walked to load the bases. Layne came through his third sacrifice fly of the weekend, and Duffer followed with the same to bring in Keenan.
Davis & Elkins homered with one out in the sixth, but freshman pitcher
Jacob Nester tallied back-to-back strikeouts to keep the lead at 7-4.
Stehlin picked his sixth save of the season by tossing a 1-2-3 seventh inning. Nester improved to 4-2 this season as he allowed four runs on five hits. He notched a career-best nine strikeouts.
Duffer and Dupont both collected two hits and two RBI. Both of Stehlin's hits went for extra bases as he added a double.
Game 2: Concord 3 – Davis & Elkins 1
Concord scored all three runs in the sixth inning to edge Davis & Elkins and earn the series sweep.
A line drive single from Hunter kick started the two-out rally. Keenan drove a double to right center field to bring in Hunter, and finally undo the scoreless stalemate. The next batter, Satcher, launched his eighth home run of the season into left center field to push Concord up 3-0.
Davis & Elkins plated a run in the bottom of the sixth on a bases-loaded walk, but sophomore pitcher
Nick Herrerias came in and induced an infield fly before recording a strikeout to strand the bases loaded and keep the advantage for CU.
For a second straight game, Stehlin was summoned to secure the win as he retired the Senators in order to end the game. His seventh save of the season is a new single-season program record.
A pitching duel broke out between freshman pitcher
Justin Carden (3-0) and former Mountain Lion McKinley Scott, now of Davis & Elkins. Carden escaped a tight spot in the fourth as he induced a double play with runners on the corner and one out. And the fifth was ended on a caught stealing at second after a two-out walk.
The trio of Carden, Herrerias and Stehlin combine to limit Davis & Elkins to four hits. Carden added five strikeouts.
Junior outfielder
Josh Adkins and Hunter both registered two hits on the afternoon. Satcher drove in two runs with his home run.
Winners of eight straight, and 11 of its last 13 games, Concord travels to Charleston 1:00 p.m. Saturday for the start of a four-game set against the MEC South leader.
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