Baseball

April 19, 2013

Baseball Avoids Elimination With 9-4 Win Over Wingate

FOREST CITY, NC -- South Atlantic Conference Player of the Year Chris Dula (Troutman, NC/S. Iredell HS) had a homer and four RBI on Friday night as top-seeded Catawba defeated second-seeded Wingate 9-4 on day two of the 2013 Food Lion SAC Baseball Tournament at McNair Field.  The Catawba Indians avoid elimination and improve to 35-15.  The Bulldogs are eliminated from the tournament and fall to 29-20.

Catawba will next play on Saturday night, facing the loser of tomorrow afternoon's contest between Tusculum and Lincoln Memorial.  The game is set for 7:30 p.m. and will be the fourth tournament game of the day with play beginning at 9 a.m. to make up for two game lost today because of rain.

Dula went 2-for-5 on the night, driving in a team-high four runs. Blake Houston (Mt. Ulla, NC/S. Rowan HS) was 3-for-5 with three runs scored, while Danny Parisi (Shirley, NY/Longwood HS) went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored for the Indians.  The trio accounted for eight of Catawba's 10 hits.

Blake Prince was 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead the Wingate attack.  Jason Hunter added a double, RBI and run scored, while Michael Godinez was 2-for-4 with an RBI.  Josh Clark and Brian Yeung each added a double and a run scored for the Bulldogs. 

Catawba got on the board in the third, scoring a pair of runs on a two-out, two-run single from Dula.  Wingate benefited from a pair of Indian errors to plate three runs in the top of the fourth.  Clark doubled to left center then, after an error, scored on an RBI double from Hunter.  Godinez tied the game at two with an RBI single, while a Catawba error allowed another run to score, giving the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead. 

Catawba scored four times in the fifth to regain the lead.  An RBI single from Parisi tied the game at three, while an RBI double from Keaton Hawks (Lexington, NC/E. Davidson HS) put the Indians on top for good.  Julio Zubillaga (China Grove, NC/Carson HS) added an RBI infield single, while a wild pitch would give Catawba a 6-3 advantage. 

The Indians scored three more runs in the seventh to push the advantage to six.  Dula had the big blow of the inning, a towering two-run homer to left, his 14th of the year.  An error, groundout and passed ball allowed another run to score, making it 9-3.  Yeung doubled off the top of the 25-foot fence in left in the eighth, then scored on an RBI single from Prince to make the final margin 9-4. 

John Tuttle (Kannapolis, NC/Brown HS) got the win for the Indians, improving to 10-4.  He allowed four runs (two earned) on seven hits in eight and a third innings, striking out seven.  Ben Currie took the loss falling to 6-3.  He allowed six runs on six hits in four innings, striking out five. 

The win also marked the 600th career win for Catawba Head Coach Jim Gantt, running his career record to 600-310.

Box Score