Elon Stops Furman 6-3
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Lance Cole pitched seven strong innings to lift Elon to a 6-3 win over Furman in Southern Conference baseball action Sunday afternoon at Furman Stadium.
Cole, a sophomore righthander from Asheboro, N.C., surrendered only four hits, one earned run, and two walks to improve to 3-2 on the season. Matt Chastain pitched a perfect eighth inning before giving way to Adam Acosta with one on in the ninth. Acosta hit Case Cassedy to put runners and first and second, but recovered by striking out A.J. Davidiuk, Nick Mershon, and Andrew Greene to end the game.
The victory helped Elon (15-17, 9-6 SoCon) avoid the series sweep by Furman (10-16, 4-5 SoCon).
Gary Morris headed up a 14-hit attack by the Phoenix with a 3-for-4 performance. Drew Davis went 2-for-3 with a two RBI, and Evan Erickson and Paul Bennett contributed a pair of base hits.
Furman’s Dominic Franchini belted his fifth home run of the season, but the Paladins managed only four hits against Phoenix pitching.
Elon erupted for five runs on six hits in third inning against Furman starting pitcher Sam Perry (2-1). Morris led off with a single and scored on Evan Tartaglia’s triple. After Perry hit Chris Price, Tyler Stevens doubled to drive in Tartaglia, and Davis followed with a double down the left field line to plate Price and Stevens to make it 4-0. Bennett completed the rally with a two-out RBI single to center that scored Davis.
Furman took advantage of three Phoenix errors in the bottom of the inning for a pair of runs. Will Stembridge reached second when Tartaglia dropped his deep fly to center field, and Andrew Greene followed with a grounder to second that was mishandled by Morris, allowing Sembridge to score. Greene, who was awarded second base on the play when Elon first baseman Chris Price was charged with interference, advanced to third on a groundout and came home on Derek Norman’s sacrifice fly.
The Paladins made it 5-3 in the sixth inning on Franchini’s solo home run to left field off Cole.
Elon answered with a run in the seventh for a 6-3 lead when Stevens reached on a fielder’s choice and advanced to third base on a pair of wild pitches by Furman reliever Matt Klinker. Stevens came home on Grant Rembert’s two-out infield single.
Furman returns to action on Wednesday when it entertains Winthrop in a 7:30
p.m. game. Elon hits the road for its next game on Wednesday at High Point beginning
at 3:00 p.m.