Box Score - Game 1
Box Score - Game 2
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The University of Charleston baseball team grabbed its first home field victory of 2010 as it split a doubleheader against WVIAC member Salem International, Wednesday afternoon.
In the first contest, the Golden Eagles rode the strong arm of senior Blake Reta (Amanda, Ohio/Amanda Clearcreek) who faced just 18 batters in the first five innings of action. UC jumped on an early 4-0 lead as Ryan Toler (Charleston, W.Va./Capital) recorded an RBI in the first inning on a hard hit single. Then in the second inning Ross Easterling (Logan, W.Va./Logan) hammered an RBI single followed by a two-run homerun in the by Nick Barnes (Strasburg, Va./Strasburg).
The home team manufactured another run in the fourth inning as Ryan Hathaway (Fredericktown, Ohio/Fredericktown) singled home Jim Clarke (Cranston, RI/Cranston West) who had just advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Mike Dahl (Shakopee, Minn./Shakopee Senior).
The Tigers found some life in the sixth inning as they cut the UC lead to 4-2 and knocked Reta from the mound. Reliever Matt Maus (Hamilton, Ohio/Stephen T. Baden) came on in relief in the sixth to calm the SIU storm. Maus would allow Salem to tack on one more run in the seventh, but settled down to seal the 5-3 win and earn his first save of the season.
Andrew Armstrong led the Golden Eagles from the plate with a 2-for-3 performance, while Barnes added two RBIs and two runs scored.
The second contest saw SIU take a fast 3-0 lead by the top of the third inning as UC starter Wes Sherrill (Charlottesville, Va./Fork Union) never got comfortable on the mound and exited the game after allowing seven hits in 3.0 innings of work.
Toler would deliver for the Golden Eagles in the bottom of the third inning with a three RBI single to cut the deficit to 3-2. UC struck again in the fifth inning by taking advantage of two Tiger errors as Armstrong crossed the plate to even the score at 3-3.
SIU plated two runs in the top of the sixth to set up and exciting rally in the bottom of the seventh for UC. Armstrong led the seventh off with a single and scored on a John Schraer (Cincinnati, Ohio/Anderson) single. The Schraer hit followed another Charleston single and a walk to load the bases with just one out, while down 5-4. The Golden Eagles comeback would fall short as Tiger starter recorded the complete game win by forcing a strikeout and ground ball back to the pitcher to close the door on UC with the score at 5-4.
Easterling led UC at the plate in game two by going a perfect 4-for-4 and scoring a run.
