CARY, N.C. – The Concord University baseball team split the first two games of its weekend trip at the USA Baseball National Training Facility as it lost to nationally-ranked West Chester, 10-9, but bounced back with a 16-9 win over Mercyhurst.
Concord is 4-5 this season after the 1-1 day.
Game 1: #18 West Chester 10 – Concord 9
The Mountain Lions jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but was unable to hold off West Chester in the middle innings.
Junior utility
MJ Hunter raced home on a wild pitch, and sophomore utility
Dawson Gragg singled in a run in a two-run first inning. Concord added to a 2-1 edge in the second inning with a sacrifice fly from Hunter and a bases-loaded walk by senior infielder
Chris Satcher.
West Chester tied the game in the third inning with a three-run frame and took the lead in the fourth inning.
Trailing 7-4 into the fifth inning, Concord used a bases-loaded walk issued to freshman catcher
Marshall Basham, and a two-run double by junior outfielder
Demetri Jamison to tie the game at 7-7. But, the Golden Rams answered with their own two-run double in the top of the sixth to gain a 9-7 edge.
Down by three runs once again, 10-7, Satcher brought in senior infielder
Daniel Layne with a hit down the left field line to trim the deficit back to two scores in the bottom of the sixth.
A fielder's choice got a run home in the bottom of the seventh, but back-to-back outs got WCU out of the jam. The Mountain Lions were able to advance the tying run into scoring position in the eighth, but fell by a run.
Freshman outfielder
Demario Faison and Gragg were both 2-for-5 with a run scored. Jamison and Satcher each recorded two RBI.
Freshman pitcher
Jake Robinson (0-1) was the pitcher of record over 3.1 innings of relief. Starter and graduate pitcher
Eddie Blake struck out five over five innings as he allowed seven runs (five earned).
Game 2: Concord 16 – Mercyhurst 9
CU broke a 9-9 tie with seven runs over the eighth and ninth innings.
With the contest knotted in the top of the seventh, fifth-year senior infielder
Michael Dupont was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to bring in the go-ahead run. The next batter, Jamison, drew a walk to give Concord a two-run advantage.
And then in the eighth, the Mountain Lions put the game out of reach with five runs. Two runs came in on a Mercyhurst error. Later in the frame, Layne raced on in a wild pitch after he reached earlier on the run-scoring error.
Jamison provided two more runs with a two-RBI single to left field to stretch the lead to 16-9.
Concord jumped out to a 3-0 lead after a half inning as Satcher, Gragg and Jamison all recorded run-scoring hits. However, the Mountain Lions trailed 7-4 after five innings before gaining a 9-7 edge after a five-run sixth inning.
Senior infielder
Zack Saryeldin started the rally with an RBI single, one of six hits for the Weston, Florida native. Layne doubled to right field to bring in Saryeldin, and Dupont capped the rally with a two-run double to left field.
Hunter, Saryeldin and Layne combined for 12 hits and 10 runs scored as the top three hitters in the order. Dupont and Jamison were a combined 5-for-7 with six RBI.
Graduate pitcher
Andrew Neff notched seven strikeouts in six innings as he allowed seven earned runs.
The Mountain Lions finish out the weekend at the USA Baseball Training Complex with a 9:30 a.m. Sunday game versus D'Youville.
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