April 12, 2008

Box Score

On Saturday (Apr. 12), the Southwestern University baseball team took the first game of a doubleheader by a score of 5-4 with Hendrix College but lost the second by an identical margin in Georgetown, TX.

Southwestern 5, Hendrix 4

The first game was slated for seven innings and the Pirates took a 3-0 lead in the second thanks to a bases loaded RBI walk for Todd Boone (Huntsville, TX/Huntsville HS) followed by a two-run single by senior Richard Falcone (Houston, TX/Westside HS). SU added a single run in the fourth when Michael Murphy (Houston, TX/Austin HS) hit his first triple of the season and later scored on an Eric Gonzales (Austin, TX/Bowie HS) sacrifice fly.

The Warriors got on the board in the fifth with two runs on five hits to make it a 4-2 ballgame. The Bucs extended the lead to 5-2 in the bottom half of the fifth as John Wooten (Columbus, TX/Columbus HS) tripled and scored on a wild pitch. Hendrix got two more runs in the sixth inning but reliever Joe Lange (Houston, TX/Lamar HS) shut the door and threw a scoreless seventh inning to close out the game.

First-year Chris Churchwell (Kingwood, TX/Kingwood HS) was the winning pitcher, throwing 4.1 innings and allowing two earned runs on eight hits. The southpaw struck out three and walked one while running his season record to 2-4. Lange earned his second save of the year, throwing 1.2 innings, giving up one hit and striking out one.

At the plate, Wooten was a perfect 2-2 with two runs scored while Falcone went 1-3 with two RBI. Boone walked three times and drove in one. Hendrix out-hit the Bucs 11-5 in the game.

Hendrix 5, Southwestern 4

In the second game, Hendrix took the first lead by scoring two runs in the top of third on just one hit. In the Pirate half of the inning, Wooten hit a two-out single to right-center followed by Blake Williams (Lufkin, TX/Lufkin HS) hitting his sixth home run of the season and tying the game at 2-2.

The Warriors manufactured a single run in the seventh thanks to a single, a stolen base and another single to pull ahead by one. SU allowed to more runs to cross in the eighth on three hits and one error. Trailing 5-2, Southwestern managed to push a run across in the eighth. Falcone drew a walk with one out and then the Pirates got runners on second and third after a double from Wooten. Williams then hit a sacrifice fly to make it 5-3. Zach Copeland (Dallas, TX/W.T. White HS) led off the ninth with a double down the right field line and scored on an error by the HC right fielder but SU got no closer as the game ended at 5-4.

Only four different players recorded hits for the Pirates, with each getting two in the game. Wooten was 2-4 with one runs scored, Williams was 2-3 with three runs batted in and one run scored, Copeland went 2-4 with one run scored and Gonzales was 2-4. Copeland had a pair of doubles in the game.

On the mound, Kyle Belski (Missouri City, TX/Dulles HS) lasted seven innings and gave up three earned runs. He scattered six hits while striking out five and walking three. The loss drops him to 2-4 on the year.

The Pirates move to 19-18 with the split and 9-6 in conference play. Hendrix is now 14-25 overall and 3-12 in the SCAC.

The two teams will close out the regular season on Sunday (Apr. 13) at 1:00 pm in Georgetown.