Wingate, N.C. – Baseball dropped their third straight game to open the season on Saturday afternoon, falling 10-7 to host Wingate.
After a frustrating loss on Friday in game two of the three game series against the Bulldogs, Charleston hoped to steal a game on the road on Saturday. They would come up just short, although there were some promising bright spots on the day. UC tallied 7 runs on 10 hits with 2 errors while Wingate had 10 runs on 11 hits with 2 errors.
For the first time in the series, The Golden Eagles struck first thanks to a 2-RBI single to center by
Brayden McCallister in the top of the 2
nd. Wingate responded in the bottom half of the 3
rd inning with four of their own runs.
After Wingate added on one run the next inning and took a 5-2 lead, scoring would halt for the next two innings.
Starting pitcher
Dwayne Sumler had his first outing in maroon and gold and worked 3.0 innings allowing three earned run, one unearned, on four hits with four walks and three strikeouts. He handed the ball over to
Cody Godbold who got through 3.1 innings himself. Godbold allowed just two earned runs on three hits and three walks.
Scoring resumed in the top of the 7
th inning when
Tyler Dellerman singled home
Hector Carreon-Herrara.
Robby Shepherd came to relieve Godbold in the bottom of the frame with runners on first and second and one out. He allowed one of his inherited runners to score after a wild pitch pushing the score to 6-3 in favor of the Bulldogs.
Wingate tacked on four more runs in the bottom of the 8
th inning. UC put up a fight in the top of the 9
th, pushing across four runs, three of which came on one swing by
Drew Klaserner. The transfer showed he could hit homers to all field as he blasted a three run shot to left to bring the score to 10-7. It would be too little, too late however, and the Golden Eagles dropped to 0-3 on the season.
The top of the lineup produced well on Saturday.
McCallister,
Dellerman, and
West all had two hits apiece.
McCallister and
Klaserner were the only two Charleston hitters with multiple RBI on the afternoon. Overall, UC had just two extra base hits, the three run shot by Klaserner and a double from
Evan Ulrich. Wingate similarly only had one extra base hit on the afternoon, a two-run double by Andrew McKay.
UC will return to action next week as they return home to face off against Bloomsburg University on Friday and Saturday at the Welch Athletic Complex.
