CHARLESTON, SC – College of Charleston starting pitcher Graham Godfrey scattered eight hits and got 13 runs of support as No. 7 seed UNC Greensboro fell 13-5 to the second-seeded Cougars Wednesday afternoon in the first round of the Southern Conference Tournament.
Godfrey (8-2) allowed one run on the eight hits while striking out five and walking three in eight innings on the hill.
Spartan starter Nick Starnes (4-5) took the loss after allowing six runs (four earned) while striking out three in four innings of mound duty.
College of Charleston (40-15) struck for two runs in the bottom of the first to jump out to an early 2-0 advantage. Chris Campbell started things with a one-out single to rightfield before Larry Cobb singled to center to put runners on first and second. Shortstop Jess Easterling then drove home both runners with a triple into right-centerfield field.
UNCG (25-32) cut the Cougar deficit in half in the following half inning when Sean Snell plated Roly Gonzalez with an RBI single through the right side. Gonzalez reached with a one-out single up the middle and then stole second before Snell picked up his 19th RBI of the season.
The Cougars quickly regained their two-run lead at 3-1 with another run in the bottom of the third. Cobb doubled to leftfield to start the frame and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt from Easterling. With the infield then moved in to prevent the run at the plate, catcher Alex Garabedian drove home Cobb with a bloop single into shallow center which would have been a routine play for a normally positioned infield.
Charleston tacked on three more runs in the fourth highlighted by a two-run double to left-centerfield by Easterling for his second hit and fourth RBI of the afternoon. Designated hitter Clay McCord gave the Cougars a 7-1 advantage after the fifth with an RBI single to center.
The Cougars would tack on three more runs in the sixth inning and another three more in the eighth to pick up an 13-1 victory and move on to the second round of the winner's bracket to face Western Carolina.
The Spartans stormed out in the ninth and scored three runs on an RBI double from Logan Smith and a two-run double to rightfield from Greg Feltes. Three batters later Brandon Harvey laced an RBI single trough the left side to make the score 13-5 in favor of the Cougars. Brendan Stines, the third Cougar pitcher of the inning, induced Wes McCall into a game-ending double play to secure the win for Charleston.
UNCG returns to the diamond Thursday morning at 10 a.m. to take on Furman in an elimination game. Furman fell to Western Carolina 14-1 Wednesday in game one of the first round. Earlier this season, UNCG took two of three from the Paladins at UNCG Baseball Stadium.
AGATE:
Coll. of Charleston 13, UNC Greensboro 5 (May 24, 2006 at Charleston, SC)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
UNC Greensboro...... 001 000 004 - 5 12 4 (25-32)
Coll. of Charleston. 201 313 03X - 13 18 0 (40-15)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: UNC Greensboro - Nick Starnes; Clay Gibson(5); Greg Martin(7); Wes McCall(8).
Coll. of Charleston - Graham Godfrey; Jake Goldberg(9); Mitch Besselievre(9); Brendan Stines(9).
Win-Graham Godfrey(8-2) Loss-Nick Starnes(4-5) T-2:58 A-830
Goldberg faced 4 batters in the 9th.
- UNCG -
