CHARLESTON, W.Va – Charleston split a twin bill with the Yellow Jackets of West Virginia State on a beautiful sunny day in the Capitol City. The Golden Eagles dropped game one by a final score of 1-0 and took game two, winning 4-0 and clinching the Mountain East Conference South Division Title outright.
 
Game 1
 
In game one Ethan Soderna, the ace of the Golden Eagles, got the nod on the bump and didn't disappoint. The grad transfer worked seven solid innings allowing just one unearned run while giving up five hits and striking out a season high 13 Yellow Jackets. He worked efficiently throwing just over 100 pitches in the outing. His efforts would not be enough, however, as the Golden Eagle offense couldn't produce any runs in game one.
 
The offense would only produce four hits in the game with those hits coming from Kyle West, Drew Klaserner, Eric Chartier, and Braxton Boddorf. They would leave six runners stranded in the game and just could not seem to figure out starting pitcher Nick Loftis. Loftis would work 7.0 innings while allowing just four hits, two walks and collecting four strikeouts.
 
The lone run would come for the Yellow Jackets in the top of the fourth inning when Nathan Paulsen came around to score on a double steal.
 
UC would threaten a few times throughout the game but couldn't come up with the big hit they needed and failed to push across a run.
 
Braxton Boddorf collected a hit and two stolen bases in the loss. Ethan Soderna would pick up his first loss on the season and move his record to 8-1.
 
Game 2
 
Colt Webb was utterly dominant on the bump in game two. He thew a complete game shutout, allowed just three hits, struck out eight, and walked just two. Webb, a Newport, NC native got out of a huge jam in the top half of the sixth inning. The Yellow Jackets loaded the bases with just one away before Webb struck out back-to-back hitters to end the threat and keep West Virginia State off the board. He lowered his season ERA to 3.33, moved to 6-2 overall, while finished the regular season with 77 strikeouts thanks to the Sunday afternoon effort.
 
In game two, Charleston struggled early to get on the board, failing to plate a run in the first three innings. They would finally break through thanks to a 2-out, 2-RBI double, in the bottom of the fourth inning. After an intentional walk to load the bases to Drew Klaserner, Pete Costigan stroked a clutch double to right center field that plated Tyler Dellerman and Braxton Boddorf to open the scoring.
 
The Golden Eagles would add on two more in the bottom half of the fifth inning thanks to Tyler Dellerman's team leading ninth sacrifice fly that brought home Jack Reisenweber. Chartier would plate another run on a double that brought home Brayden McCallister.
 
The score would stick at 4-0 as Webb slammed the door in the 7^th, getting a 6-4-3 double play to collect the first two outs before a groundout to second base ended the game.
 
With the win, the Golden Eagles clinched the outright South Division title and moved to 31-15 overall with a 23-7 conference record. Dellerman broke the single season RBI record held by Colby Johnson after his sacrifice fly in the fourth. The record was held by UC's Colby Johnson who tallied 57 back in 2019 in 60 games. He is now just one home run shy of the single season home run record as well as he sits at 11 season home runs.
Up next, Charleston will head down to Institute to take on the Yellow Jackets their home turf at Cal Bailey field on Monday afternoon. Those games are scheduled for 1 and 4 p.m. with livestream on mountaineast.tv/wvsu/
-UC-