April 12, 2003
FURMAN BLOWS PAST APPALACHIAN
STATE 9-2,
CLAIMS SIXTH WIN IN LAST SEVEN GAMES
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Dominic Frankey homered and drove in three runs and John Stallsmith pitched seven innings of solid baseball to lift Furman to a 9-2 Southern Conference win over Appalachian State Saturday evening at Furman Stadium.
Frankey, an all-conference first baseman from Hamilton, Ohio, delivered his two-run double in a three-run Paladin third inning and cracked his fourth home run of the season an inning later to help stake Furman to an 8-1 lead. Stallsmith (1-3), a senior righthander from Fox Point, Wisc., surrendered only four hits and one walk while striking out six on the way to earning his first win of the season.
Furman (17-14, 8-9 SoCon) won the sixth time in its last seven games. Appalachian State (8-21, 3-11 SoCon) was paced by Graham Thompson, who collected a pair of hits and a run.
The Paladins outhit the Mountaineers 10-7 and took advantage of six walks by Mountaineer pitchers.
Appalachian State opened the scoring in the first when Graham Thompson doubled down the right field line and came home on a two-out single by Eric Pittman.
Furman took advantage of three walks by Mountaineer starter Joe Norton (1-5) to take a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the first. Walks by Clint Hill, Derek Norman, and Dominic Frankey loaded the bases, and Drew Latora followed with a one out single to right field to plate two runs. Norton escaped further damage by striking out Steven Hildreth and Matthew Betsill to end the inning.
The Paladins tallied three more times in the second to extend their lead to 5-1. With two out Clint Hill reached on an error by third baseman Justin Thomas, whose throw sailed high down the right field line. Advancing to third on the overthrow, Hill took advantage of the Mountaineers’ failure to cover home plate and slid in ahead of the tag by Norton. Furman followed up Hill’s aggressive play with a two-run Frankey double to left center that plated Norman and Wajda and chased Norton, who surrendered five runs, five walks, and three hits over 1.2 innings.
Furman tacked on two more runs in the third off Mountaineer reliever David Batten. After Betsill walked with one out, Cole Hubka beat out an infield single. A.J. Davidiuk and Hill then followed with back-to-back RBI singles to make it 7-1.
Dominic Frankey extended the Paladins’ lead to 8-1 in the fourth with a line drive home run over the left field fence for his fourth rountripper of the season.
Drew Latora went 2-for-3 and collected two RBI.
Furman and Appalachian State complete the three-game series on Sunday beginning at 1:00 p.m.