MASTNY TAMES CATAMOUNTS 4-2
Greenville, S.C.-- Senior right-handed pitcher Tom Mastny allowed six hits and no earned runs over nine innings of work, and Cole Hubka blasted his first home run of the season as the Furman Paladins defeated Western Carolina 4-2 in baseball action Sunday afternoon at Furman Baseball Stadium.
With the win, Mastny improves his record to 5-2 on the season and now sports a 0.98 ERA, second lowest in the Southern Conference. The Zionsville native has yet to lose a conference game and has now pitched three straight complete games in conference play.
Western Carolina (20-9, 10-2 SoCon) jumped on the board first as Chris Davis drove in Alex Gary, who earlier reached on an error, to give the Catamounts a 1-0 lead in the second inning.
The Paladins responded in the bottom of the third inning as A.J. Davidiuk doubled in Matthew Betsill to tie the game at 1-1.
Furman (12-13, 4-8 SoCon) then captured the lead in the fourth inning as Hubka hit a solo home run to left field, giving the Paladins a 2-1 advantage.
In the fifth inning, the Paladins tacked on two more runs off four hits. Davidiuk
led-off the inning with his second double of the game, and later scored on a
Brandon Barrett double, pushing Furman’s lead
to 3-1. Derek Norman then singled to put runners on the corners. Dominic Frankey
followed with a ground ball to the shortstop, who was able to get Norman out
at second, but unable to turn the double play, allowing Barrett to score from
third to make it a 4-2 ball game in favor of the Paladins.
Mastny then took over the game, allowing no hits over the next three innings. In the ninth, however, the Catamounts got to Mastny as Brandon McDowell and Jimmy Cochran both singled with one-out. Denver Edick then hit a ground ball up the middle, but Barrett was unable to turn the twin-killing as the ball flew over the first baseman’s head, which allowed McDowell to score, slicing the Furman lead to 4-2. Mastny, however, got the next batter to ground-out to end the game.
Brad Josey (4-1) took the loss for Western Carolina, allowing four runs on seven hits over four plus innings of work.
Alan Beck led the Catamounts at the plate, going 2-for-3, while Davidiuk was the offensive leader for Furman with two hits and one RBI.
Out of eight hits on the day for Furman, five of them were extra base hits (three doubles, a triple and a home run).
Western Carolina returns to action on Tuesday when they travel to Clemson for a 7:15 p.m. game. The Paladins next travel to High Point to face the Panthers on Wednesday. Game time is 3:00 p.m.