CHARLESTON, S.C.?Alan DeRatt threw a complete game six hit shutout and received all the run support he needed on home runs by Kevin Wiedenbacher and Reed Kreiser as UNC Asheville defeated Wright State 2-0 Saturday morning in the first game of the Citadel Shootout.
DeRatt (3-0) has not allowed a run and has given up just eight hits in his first three starts spanning 23 innings. On Saturday, he allowed six hits and walked just one batter and struck out eight while throwing his first complete game since shutting out Birmingham-Southern in the first round of the 2006 Big South Tournament, 2-0, on May 24, 2006.
UNC Asheville improves to 5-6 on the season with three of the five victories coming by shut out. The Bulldogs had just one shutout all of last season.
The only scoring of the game came in the seventh inning off Wright State reliever Scott Ruthven (0-1). Wiedenbacher hit the first pitch he saw from Ruthven over the left field wall with one out for the first home run of his Bulldog career. One out later, Kreiser hit his fourth home run of the year to left field on a 1-1 pitch.
Asheville left nine runners on base in the game including the bases loaded in the sixth. The Dogs had four hits in the game but were walked eight times. Kevin Mattison a Danny Baatz had the other two hits for Asheville who will play Evansville tonight at 7 p.m.
Wright State (0-7) advanced two runners to third base in the game. In the fourth inning, the Raiders had runners at second and third with two outs before DeRatt got a groundball back to the pitcher's mound to get out off the inning. WSU's best chance to score came in the eighth inning when it got a lead off double and a sacrifice bunt to put a runner at third with one out. DeRatt got a strikeout and a groundball to second to escape the jam.
The Raiders had not been shutout since a 7-0 loss to UIC on May 20, 2006 a span of 80 games. WSU faces the Citadel later this afternoon at 4 p.m.
