University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
East Tennessee State
Bulldogs Grab Pair of Saturday Wins
02.21.2015 | Baseball
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The UNC Asheville Bulldogs used two late inning comebacks on Saturday afternoon to earn victories against Miami (OH) and East Tennessee State in Spartanburg.
The wins marked the first victories for Asheville first-year head coach Scott Friedholm.
In their afternoon contest, the Bulldogs (2-3) plated two runs in the top of the eighth inning as part of their 5-3 win over the RedHawks before Asheville pushed across the game-winning run in the bottom of the eighth against the Buccaneers for a 3-2 victory in the nightcap.
“The pitching staff today did a great job. We played really well in the first game with some timely hitting. In the second game, ETSU pitched well but we were able to battle back late,” Friedholm said.
Offensively, the Bulldogs finished with just 10 total hits across the two contests, but the Asheville pitching staff turned in a tremendous day's work, as starters Corey Randall and Lucas Clarke combined to toss 14 2/3 innings of the 18 total innings and the pitching staff as a whole allowed just 12 hits to the opposition.
Randall tossed eight innings against Miami, allowing six hits and three runs (two earned) while striking out one, while Parker Swindell notched his first save of the season in the ninth.
The Bulldogs found themselves down 3-0 after the Miami second inning that saw a pair of early singles score via wild pitches and a third run score off a sacrifice fly by Kendall Johnson.
Asheville battled back to tie the game in the fifth when Joe Tietjen led off the frame with a double into the right-center field gap and Lucas Owens followed by reaching on an error. Tietjen scored on Derek Smith's sacrifice bunt before Kyle Carruthers' RBI single plated Owens and would eventually come around to knot the score via a sacrifice fly by Kyle Towles later in the inning.
The Bulldogs saw Justin Woods delivered a two-out double in the top of the eighth and Tietjen walked to keep the frame alive before both scored on Owen's go-ahead two-run double.
Right-hander Ryan Haynes (0-1) was saddled with the loss after allowing both eventual Asheville runs to reach base in the eighth as part of his 1/3 of an inning of work.
In the nightcap against ETSU, the Bulldogs finished with just four hits, but again saw their pitchers turn in another gem.
Starter Lucas Clarke tossed 6 2/3 innings and allowed three hits and two unearned runs. Tyler Hughes notched a strikeout as part of his one inning of work out of the bullpen before Nick Schavone earned the win with his 1 1/3 innings of relief, allowing just one hit while striking out a pair of Buccaneer hitters.
Asheville got on the board first in the bottom of the second inning with two runs after back-to-back singles to open the inning by Hunter Bryant and Carruthers saw both come around to score later in the frame. Bryant plated the game's first run when he scored on Tanner Bush's bases loaded sacrifice fly and Carruthers would race home moments later and score via an ETSU wild pitch.
ETSU tied things up in the fifth after a pair of runners reached early in the inning and later scored via a sacrifice fly by Jeremy Taylorand an RBI single by Chris Cook.
The eventual winning run came in the eighth when Bush opened the inning with a walk before advancing to second and third bases on a pair of passed balls. Tietjen reached on a fielders' choice later in the frame to plate Bush and give the Bulldogs a lead they would not give back.
Ryan Simpler (0-1) took the loss for ETSU, allowing the one unearned run to score as part of his two inning, four strikeout outing.
Asheville wraps up the weekend when they journey to Wofford to face the Terriers at 1 p.m on Sunday afternoon.
