Baseball

April 11, 2012

Big Fifth Inning Helps Baseball Past #11 USC Aiken

SALISBURY, NC -- Brett Underwood (Greensboro, NC/SW Guilford HS) had three hits and Catawba tallied all of its runs in the bottom of the fifth inning as the Indians defeated #11 USC Aiken Wednesday night at Newman Park. The Indians go to 33-10 overall and the Pacers fall to 26-13.

John Tuttle (Kannapolis, NC/A.L. Brown HS) picked up the victory for Catawba pitching three innings of middle relief allowing no runs and four hits with two strikeouts to improve to 3-2. Starting pitcher Nate King (Vancouver, WA/Skyview HS/NC State) lasted three-and-a-third giving up four hits and no earned runs. Craig Brooks (Monroe, NC/Parkwood HS) pitched the ninth inning to pick up his second save of the season.

Aiken scored first in the third frame when Bill Gerstenslager singled in Josh Miller and Nick Aranas came in on a sacrifice fly to give the Pacers a 2-0 advantage. Two walks and a fielding error by Catawba aided the Aiken scoring. 

The Indians scored all they would need in the fifth inning on just three hits. Ethan Satterfield (Madison, NC/McMichael HS) knocked out his fourth home run of the year to get things started. After three straight walks by Pacer losing pitcher Thomas McLeod, new pitcher Wyatt Brown walked Keaton Hawks (Lexington, NC/E. Davidson HS) with the bases juiced to plate Cameron Beard (Conover, NC/Bunker Hill HS). Ryan Bostian (Kannapolis, NC/S. Rowan HS/Montreat) then cleared the bases with a double to left to make it 5-2. Underwood singled to right on the next play to bring in Bostian to close out the scoring.

The Pacers added a run in the ninth inning when Will Tankersley scored on a fielder’s choice to first base. Brooks then got a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat of a comeback.

Aiken outhit the Indians 10-8, but stranded 15 runners to Catawba’s 11. Five errors were committed between the two teams. Pacer pitchers issued eight total walks.

Four Aiken players had two hits apiece while no Indian other than Underwood had more than one.

Catawba travels to Lincoln Memorial University this weekend for its final South Atlantic Conference series of the season. Game time is set for 4 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Box Score