April 26, 2008

Lenoir-Rhyne Baseball Ends Season With A Split At The South Region Classic

L-R falls to Carson-Newman by a 4-2 score but rallies to defeat No. 19 Tusculum, 6-4, in 10 innings

Greeneville, Tenn. – The Lenoir-Rhyne College Baseball Team (23-32) ended the season with a split of its two games at the South Region Classic Saturday at Pioneer Park in Greeneville, Tenn.

Carson-Newman (41-16) defeated L-R by a 4-2 before Lenoir-Rhyne rallied from a three-run deficit to defeat No. 19 Tusculum (38-13), 6-4, in 10 innings in the second contest.

Carson-Newman 4, Lenoir-Rhyne 2
Carson-Newman’s Brett Hontz (Newton Square, Pa.), the 2008 South Atlantic Conference Pitcher Of The Year, improved to 11-1 on the season after limiting L-R to just two runs over five innings to lead the Eagles to the win.

Carson-Newman jumped ahead with two runs in the second inning and led 3-0 after four-and-a-half innings of play before L-R cut the margin to one at 3-2 when redshirt freshman catcher Brian Dice (Hickory, N.C./Western Carolina Univ.) and freshman outfielder Stephen Andrews (Winston-Salem, N.C./Mount Tabor HS) drove in runs in the Bears’ half of the sixth.

The Eagles, however, finished out the scoring on Jason Gray’s (Rutledge, Tenn.) RBI single in the top of the ninth inning.

Gray finished with two hits while Langdon Potts (Dandridge, Tenn.) scored twice to lead Carson-Newman.

Bear junior third baseman Daniel Ford (Youngstown, Ohio/Manatee CC) and junior first baseman Zachary Glass (Salisbury, N.C./Salisbury HS) each had three hits despite the loss.

L-R sophomore Chris Henderson (Lincolnton, N.C./West Lincoln HS) fell to 4-8 in the setback.

Box Score

Lenoir-Rhyne 6, No. 19 Tusculum 4 (10 innings)
Lenoir-Rhyne rallied from a 4-1 deficit to take the victory in extra innings.

The Bears tied the game at four with three runs in the eighth inning highlighted by senior centerfielder Mark Drucker’s (Boca Raton, Fla./Indian River CC) RBI single that evened the score.

Tusculum had a chance to win in the bottom of the ninth inning but L-R sophomore Evan Taylor (Charlotte, N.C./Independence HS) threw out the Pioneers’ Christian Rosa (Toa Baja, Puerto Rico) at home from right field.

After the game moved to extra innings, L-R won it with two runs in the top of the 10th inning when freshman designated hitter Anthony Sully (Charlotte, N.C./Hopewell HS) scored on a wild pitch and Drucker’s connected on a sacrifice fly.

Drucker finished with two runs batted in while Ford and Sully each tallied two hits and scored twice to lead Lenoir-Rhyne.

Tusculum’s Carlos Rivera (Leesburg, Va.) finished two-for-four with two RBI including a first-inning solo home run.

Lenoir-Rhyne senior Jesse Beane (Collettsville, N.C./West Caldwell HS) improved to 5-1 on the year after pitching two scoreless innings while senior Josh Keller (Claremont, N.C./Methodist Coll.) picked up his fourth save of the season.

Meanwhile, Tusculum’s Carlos Ortiz (Trujillo Alto, Puerto Rico) fell to 3-2 with the loss.

Ford set a school single-season record for hits in a season with 92.

L-R handed Tusculum just its fourth loss at home this year.

Box Score