GREENSBORO, NC Clay Gibson hurled 5-2/3 innings of shutout baseball en route to his second win of the season as UNC Greensboro defeated in-state rival UNC Asheville 2-0 Wednesday evening at UNCG Baseball Stadium.
With the win, the Spartans improved to 18-2 all-time against UNC Asheville and ran their winning streak to 16 straight over the Bulldogs in the process. UNCG is a now a perfect 15-0 against the Bulldogs in games played in Greensboro.
Gibson, a native of Gastonia, NC, picked up his second consecutive win and improved to 2-0 on the season after allowing no runs on just seven scattered hits while striking out two in just under six innings of work.
Senior Patrick Currin pitched a perfect ninth inning as the Chapel Hill, NC collected his fourth save of the season and extended his scoreless streak to 12 innings. In just his one inning, Currin allowed no hits and struck out two.
Clinton McKinney also saw action on the hill for the Spartans, allowing no runs on just one hit while striking out two in 2-1/3 innings of mound duty.
Bulldog starting pitcher Tim Johnson (1-5) took the loss after yielding two runs (one earned) on seven hits in 6-1/3 innings on the hill. Andrew Alexander pitched the final 1-2/3 innings and gave up just one hit and recorded one punchout.
UNCG (12-18) put the first run on the board in the bottom of the first as the Spartans used a two-out rally to take a 1-0 led after one. Guy Welsh started the rally with a single to leftfield and Wes McCall followed the put runners on first and second. Brandon Harvey picked up his first RBI of the night with a sharp single to leftfield that plated McCall.
The Spartans tacked on another run in the home half of the third on Harvey's second RBI of the evening. Greg Feltes drew a walk to start the frame and Welsh then reached on catcher's interference before McCall moved both runners up with a sacrifice bunt. Harvey drove home Feltes from third with a groundout to the right side to give UNCG a 2-0 lead.
After the third inning, the Spartan pitching staff allowed just five hits over the final six innings and allowed only three Bulldogs to reach second base.
UNCG returns to action Friday evening when the Spartans travel to Boone, NC Friday afternoon at 3 p.m. to begin a three-game series with Appalachian State.
AGATE:
UNC Greensboro 2, UNC Asheville 0 (Apr 05, 2006 at Greensboro, NC)
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UNC Asheville....... 000 000 000 - 0 8 1 (13-16)
UNC Greensboro...... 101 000 00X - 2 8 1 (12-18)
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Pitchers: UNC Asheville - JOHNSON, Tim; ALEXANDER, Andrew(7). UNC Greensboro - Clay Gibson;
Clinton McKinney(6); Patrick Currin(9).
Win-Clay Gibson(2-0) Save-Patrick Currin(4) Loss-JOHNSON, Tim(1-5) T-2:25 A-306
- UNCG -
