April 13, 2001
FOUR HOME RUNS POWER UNC GREENSBORO TO 10-5
VICTORY OVER FURMAN IN FIRST HOME NIGHT GAME
GREENVILLE -- UNC Greensboro belted four home runs to take a 10-5 Southern Conference win over Furman in front of 587 fans in attendance for the first home night baseball game in school history.
Getting solo home runs from Jesse Martin, Nick Lockhart, Chris Mittendorf, Ramon Balderas off Furman starting pitcher Tom Mastny, the Spartans (19-16, 10-5 SoCon) grabbed an early lead and then held the Paladins (20-17, 10-8 SoCon) in check behind Everette Hancock (5-3), who yielded four earned runs in seven innings of work en route to the win.
Mastny (5-4) absorbed the loss after giving up seven runs and 10 hits over 5 2/3 innings.
UNC Greensboro jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first following an RBI single by Martin and fielderıs choice groundout by Nick Lockhart.
The Spatansı upped their advantage to 3-0 in the second on a home run by Balderas to right field before Furman cut it to 3-2 in the bottom of inning on an RBI double by Dominic Frankey, who later scored on a wild pitch.
UNCG answered in the third inning when Martin blasted a Mastny pitch over the left field fence for his 10th home run of the season, giving the Spartans a 4-2 lead. UNCGıs long ball parade continued in the sixth inning with back-to-back lead off home runs by Lockhart and Mittendorf off Mastny. Two outs later Balderas doubled and later scored on a single by Schutt off Paladin reliever Mike Dugan to make it a 7-2 game.
A three-run Spartan eighth inning, aided by three wild pitches by Furmanıs Jon Stallsmith, made it 10-2 before the Paladins chased Hancock with three straight hits and a run to start the bottom of the eighth. Brandon Barrett greeted Spartan reliever Ted Toler with a two-run double to slice the UNCG lead to 10-5, but Taft Cable, who came in relief of Toler, got Furmanıs Chris Valdes on a pop fly to end the Paladin threat with the bases loaded.
Cable retired Furman in order in the ninth to earn his fourth save of the season.
UNCG totaled 13 hits, including a 3-for-5, two-RBI performance by Schutt and a 3-for-4, three-run effort by Balderas. Brandon Barrett led the Paladinsı 12-hit attack, going 3-for-4 with two RBI. Dominic Frankey went 2-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored.
The two teams square off in game two of the three-game conference series on Saturday beginning at 6:00 p.m.