University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Gardner-Webb
Sunday Victory Gives Bulldogs Road Series Win
03.29.2015 | Baseball
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – The UNC Asheville baseball team earned its first Big South Conference series win of the season on Sunday with a 5-3 road victory over Gardner-Webb.
The Bulldogs (14-14, 3-6 BSC) led throughout the game Sunday, but added what turned out to be two key insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning to push their advantage to 5-1 before seeing Gardner-Webb (16-12, 5-4 BSC) plate a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth and have the tying run at the plate before Asheville slammed the door on the game and the series.
Left-hander Lucas Clarke earned his third victory on year with his six-inning outing, allowing just one run on two hits, holding Gardner-Webb hitless until the fifth inning.
Hunter Bryant and Tommy Houmard each finished with two hits and an RBI to lead the offensive attack. Erik Connolly added two RBI of his own for the second consecutive game, while Kyle Carruthers contributed a hit and RBI as well.
Scoreless until the fourth inning, Asheville scored two, two-out runs to jump in front. Bryant's double into right-center field brought home Lucas Owens before Carruthers drew a bases loaded walk to bring Bryant home.
After the hosts cut the advantage to one run in the fifth on an RBI single, the Bulldogs tacked on another run in the sixth frame when Kyle Towles opened the inning with a double into left field and later scored on Houmard's fielder's choice ground ball.
The score remained at 3-1 heading into the ninth, when Asheville plated a pair of runners on Connolly's two-run single. Gardner-Webb used a leadoff single, followed by an RBI double and later a sacrifice fly to pull within two runs and had a runner at first base when the potential tying runner was struck out by Nick Schavone to cap off the afternoon.
The Bulldogs jump out of Big South play next week as they continue their long road trip, first with a midweek game at Tennessee Tech on Tuesday afternoon before heading to the coast for a three-game series at UNC Wilmington next weekend.
