GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Andrew Greene doubled to lead off the 13th inning and came home on Case Cassedy’s one-out, bases loaded single to lift Furman to a 7-6 win over Gardner-Webb Tuesday at Furman Stadium.
Tuesday’s contest marked the final home game of the season for Furman (19-32), which wraps up its 2004 campaign this weekend with a three-game series at Southern Conference rival East Tennessee State.
With the loss, Gardner-Webb (30-21), which fell 2-1 to Furman at home in early March, had its 11-game winning streak snapped.
Furman, which tallied 14 hits against Bulldog pitching, was paced at the plate by Cassedy, who went 3-for-6 with the game winning RBI. Sam McLain and Matthew Betstill collected two hits and two RBI, and A.J. Davidiuk extended his hitting streak to 19 games.
Nathan MacDonald went 3-for-6 with two RBI to lead Gardner-Webb.
Furman struck for three runs in the first on a McLain RBI double to left and Betsill’s fourth home of the season, a two-run blast to right field off Gardner-Webb starter Abraham Gonzalez.
The Bulldogs made it 3-2 in the third inning. Joey Testa led off with a single and advanced to second on a balk before coming home on a Jim Glueckert single. With two outs, MacDonald doubled down the right field line to score Jon David Milford, who had reached on a fielder’s choice.
Furman chased Gonzalez with three runs in the fifth. Craig Caudill singled to lead off and moved to second when Davidiuk was hit by a Gonzalez pitch. Derek Norman then followed with a two-run double down the left field line and scored on McLain’s single to left center. Gardner-Webb avoided further damage when Bulldog reliever Andrew Martin induced a double play off Betsill’s bat to end the inning.
The Bulldogs narrowed the Paladin advantage to 6-4 with a pair of runs in the sixth off Paladin reliever Calvin Hurst. Clint Abernathy singled to center to lead off and moved to second on a balk before coming home on MacDonald’s RBI single to left center. An fielding error put Bulldogs at first and third, but Hurst helped short-circuit the Gardner-Webb rally by getting Ryan Quirello to hit into a double play with MacDonald scoring from third.
Gardner-Webb made it 6-5 in the seventh on a run-scoring single by Matt Bridges off Paladin reliever Ryan Hodinka and tied it with one out in the ninth when Testa drilled a line drive off Betstill’s glove at third base into left field, allowing Ryan McGirr to score from second.
The Bulldogs’ game tying rally was made possible after Furman failed to score in the seventh and eighth innings despite advancing runners to third in both frames with less than two outs. The Paladins also put a pair of runners on in the 10th inning but again failed to produce when G-W reliever Brandon Martin (2-2) got Franchini on a fly out to right field with two runners on to end the threat.
Gardner-Webb got a lead off double from Sammy Styers in the 12th but Furman’s Andrew Greene stranded the go-ahead run at third with a diving catch in short centerfield to end the inning.
The Bulldogs’ Blake Lalli opened the 13th with a double off the right center field fence but was also stranded at third when Styers was retired on a grounder for the third out.
David Mitchell (4-6) picked up the win after allowing only two hits over the final 2 1/3 innings.