March 22, 2008

Catawba Baseball Rolls To A 17-4 Win Over Lenoir-Rhyne

Bears fall to 17-18 on the season

Hickory, N.C. – The Catawba College Baseball Team (22-11, 10-5) won easily over Lenoir-Rhyne College (17-18, 8-4), 17-4, Saturday afternoon at Bears Field to take the South Atlantic Conference series between the two long-time rivals.

Catawba’s Jerry Sands (Clayton, N.C./Smithfield-Selma HS) hit a three-run home run and finished with seven runs batted in while Brett Hatley (Salisbury, N.C./West Rowan HS) added three RBI in the convincing victory.

Catawba took control early with a three-run first inning that included a two-run single by Hatley and led 5-1 after two innings of play.

The Catawba Indians then put the game away with Sands’ three-run home run in the fourth inning for an 8-1 advantage and eventually led 11-1 on Craige Lylerly’s (Salisbury, N.C./East Rowan HS) two-run home run in the sixth inning.

Sands’ bases-clearing double highlighted a six-run ninth inning for Catawba, who totaled 20 hits in the contest.

L-R was led by sophomore outfielder Evan Taylor (Charlotte, N.C./Independence HS), who finished with two hits including a two-run home run.

Alex Fairweather (Lenoir, N.C./West Caldwell HS) (4-1) picked up the win after allowing just one earned run to go along with six strikeouts in seven innings of work for Catawba while L-R sophomore Justin Crowell (New London, N.C./North Stanly HS) fell to 2-4 with the loss.

Lenoir-Rhyne next hosts Erskine on Wednesday beginning at 2 p.m., while Catawba visits No. 1 Mount Olive on Tuesday beginning at 2:30 p.m.

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