University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
VMI
VMI Downs UNC Asheville, 7-4
05.25.2010 | Baseball
ROCK HILL, S.C.- VMI reliever John Garrett earned his third victory of the season against UNC Asheville as the Keydets downed the Bulldogs, 7-4 in the play-in round of the 2010 Big South Conference baseball tournament.
The loss ended the Bulldogs' season at 17-35. The Keydets (33-20) will play top-seeded Coastal Carolina at 11 a.m. on Wednesday in the double-elimination part of the tournament.
Asheville scored two runs in the top of the first inning to lead 2-0 but were stymied the rest of the game by VMI pitching and clutch hitting by the Keydets. Six of VMI's runs scored on two-out hits.
Keydet starter Adam Lopez went the first four innings before being replaced by Garrett in the top of the fifth as the Bulldogs had runners on first and second with nobody out. Garrett was able to get a strike-out and a double-play to get out of the inning and keep VMI's lead at 4-2.
The Keydets added two runs in the bottom of the fifth to lead 6-2 and Asheville could get no closer than the final score.
Garrett pitched four innings and allowed just one hit and one unearned run to raise his record to 6-1. He picked up two wins against the Bulldogs in relief when VMI swept a series against Asheville the weekend of April 2-3.
"VMI is a good team that was ranked in the top 30 for much of the first half of the year," commented first-year Bulldog coach Tom Smith. "They showed why today. VMI's pitching stopped us after the first inning. We had opportunities but couldn't get that big hit for a big inning.
"VMI got some clutch hitting with two outs," added Smith. "We were a pitch away from ending an inning but they (VMI) got a hit that drove in a run or kept an inning going."
The Bulldogs had three players with two hits each as Robert McIntosh, Mike Vaughn and Jordan Lurie all had two hits for Asheville. McIntosh drove in two runs in the game, including run-scoring singles in the first and ninth innings.
The Bulldogs left 11 men on base during the game.
Sam Roberts led the VMI hitting attack with three hits, including two doubles. Third baseman Chase Worthington had two hits, two RBI and two doubles.
Asheville led 2-1 in the bottom of the fourth before the Keydets took the lead for good. Andrew Montague and Steele Myers, VMI's #8 and #9 hitters, delivered two-out run-scoring singles to give VMI a 3-2 lead.
Justin Schumer finished 1-for-2 at the plate with three walks. The senior first baseman/pitcher ended the season with a .385 batting average.
Ryan Dull (6-4) took the loss for the Bulldogs. He pitched five innings, allowing nine hits, six runs with five earned.
