Friday, April 21, 2006
PRESBYTERIAN DEFEATS WINGATE 11-8 IN SAC TOURNEY
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – Sixth-seeded Presbyterian posted an 11-8 victory over seventh-seeded Wingate to advance in the 2006 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Baseball Tournament, hosted Friday at Pioneer Park.
Presbyterian moves to 19-39 on the season and will face the loser of the game between No. 1 Catawba and No. 4 Mars Hill on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Carson-Newman. Wingate concludes its season with a 16-38 record.
Kemper Booth (Hendersonville, N.C.) led the Blue Hose offensive efforts, going 3-for-4 with two home runs and four RBI. Cory Lyda (Simpsonville, S.C.) was 3-for-5 with three RBI. Lyda slugged a two-run homer down the right field line that snapped an 8-8 tie in the top of the ninth inning.
Parker Suit (Macon, Ga.) picked up the win in relief for PC, allowing just one hit and no runs in 1.1 innings of work.
Shaughn Neal (Matthews, N.C.) led Wingate at the plate, going 2-for-4 with four RBI. Brent Simpson (Wadesboro, N.C.) was 3-for-4 with one run driven in.
With Wingate leading the contest 3-2, Presbyterian collected five runs in the top of the third to take a 7-3 advantage. Highlightin the inning were back-to-back home runs by Nick Hoffner (Ellicot City, Md.) and Booth.
Wingate plated three runs in the next two innings to slice its defecit to 7-6. Simpson, Nick Siega-Riz (Clemmons, N.C.) and Blair Troutman (Concord, N.C.) had RBI hits during the Rally.
PC scored a run in the sixth compliments of a Lyda RBI single to extend its lead to 8-6. Nevertheless, the Bulldogs rallied again, scoring two runs in the eighth to knot the score at 8-8. Neal generated the tying runs with an RBI single to left field that scored Simpson and Michael Parker (Snow Camp, N.C.)
Lyda snapped the tie with his two-run homer in the ninth, and Booth drove in the final insurance run with a single to third.