BECKLEY, W.Va. – The Concord University baseball team lost two games at the Mountain East Conference Saturday, falling to Charleston 15-1 and dropping an 8-6 contest to Glenville State.
The Mountain Lions finish the season at 33-19-1. Charleston and Glenville State will play for the MEC Championship Game Sunday with UC needing one win to clinch the title.
Game 1: Charleston 15 – Concord 1
The Mountain Lions fell behind 5-0 after the first inning as they were forced to play catch up in the winner's bracket final contest.
CU had a chance to get back into the contest in the bottom of the second as it loaded the bases with two outs, however, Charleston induced a groundout to keep the advantage.
Fifth-year senior
Anthony Stehlin hit his third home run of the MEC Tournament—and eighth of the season—with a solo shot to leadoff the third inning. It was also Stehlin's 40
th RBI of the campaign.
Stehlin finished 3-for-4 at the plate as he added a double to go with the homer. Sophomore infielder
Michael Dupont reached base three times as he had a base hit and walked twice.
Fifth-year senior pitcher
Dan Nicholls (3-2) gave up seven runs over 2.1 innings as he was the pitcher of record.
Game 2: Glenville State 8 – Concord 6
CU trailed 5-0 after three innings and was unable to recover from the slow start.
Concord trimmed the margin to 5-3 after four innings. In the fourth, the Maroon and Gray strung together a two-out rally. An error by GSU brought in Concord's first run as Dupont touched home after reaching on one-out walk. The inning was kept alive for Stehlin to rip a two-run single into center field.
After the Pioneers stretched the lead out to 7-3 after the top of the sixth. However, the Mountain Lions had a response in the bottom of the sixth. Three of the first batters reached in the frame. With runners on the corners, junior outfielder
Kyle Keenan sent a double to right field to get a run in.
Stehlin also scored in the frame after a Glenville State error. But, GSU escaped a bases-loaded jam with consecutive strikeouts to keep the advantage at two.
The Pioneers added a run in the seventh to lead 8-5.
Junior outfielder
Josh Adkins homered with one out in the ninth, but 8-6 was as close as CU would get.
Sophomore outfielder
D.J. Christian and Stehlin both finished with two hits. Stehlin concluded the tournament by going 12-for-17 with three home runs, four doubles and eight RBI.
Freshman pitcher
Justin Carden (3-2) was the losing pitcher as he allowed three earned runs to start the game.
Saturday was the final game in the coaching career of
Kevin Garrett. The CU Hall of Fame coach collected 519 career wins over 22 seasons and led the Mountain Lions to three NCAA Tournament appearances.
Saturday night also marked the final career games for seniors
Brandon Bayne,
Gabe Garcia, Nicholls and Stehlin.
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