GREENSBORO, NC UNC Greensboro recorded a season-high 18 hits on Sunday afternoon as the Spartans secured the series win by winning the rubber match against The Citadel, 12-4, at the UNCG Baseball Stadium. The Spartans have now won six of their last eight games, including a pair of SoCon series.
Reliever Matt Parish picked up his third win of the season after giving up just four hits in three innings of relief for the Spartans (14-19, 4-12 SoCon). The Spartans were led at the plate by Brent O'Berry and Ray Quinones, who each had four hits on the afternoon.
The Citadel starter Matt Crim was credited with the loss for the Bulldogs (22-16, 10-8 SoCon) after giving up six runs, all earned, in just 2 2/3 innings of work.
The Spartans struck in the first inning to give themselves an early 1-0 lead. O'Berry led off the inning with a single up the middle and scored later in the inning on Quinones' single down the right field line.
UNCG added another run in the second inning thanks to Drew Gehringer's leadoff single to center field. He would move to second on a sacrifice bunt before moving over to third on a fly ball to right field. O'Berry followed with his second hit of the afternoon to left field to score Gehringer and put UNCG ahead 2-0.
The Spartans exploded for four runs in the third inning to push their lead to 6-0. With one down in the inning, Quinones hit a double to center field and Michael Wall followed with a walk. Gehringer then hit a double off the right field wall to score Quinones from second and move Wall to third. After a Spartan strikeout, Kris Richards hit his first triple of the season to deep right center to score Wall and Gehringer. Richards would later score on an O'Berry single to give UNCG a six run lead.
The Bulldogs were able to respond with two runs in the top of the fourth to narrow UNCG's lead to 6-2. Bryan Altman led off with a single and later scored on a ground out by Richard Jones. Chris McGuiness also scored later in the inning on Matt Simonelli's single to right field.
UNCG added one more run in the sixth inning when Corey Overholtzer took the first pitch of the inning over the right field wall for his first home run of the season.
The Spartans continued their offensive onslaught in the seventh inning when Alex Frederick led off with a chopper up the middle to reach first. After moving over to third on a sacrifice bunt and wild pitch, Frederick scored on another O'Berry RBI single to left field.
With the Spartans carrying an 8-2 lead into the eighth inning, the Bulldogs made things interesting by narrowing the Spartans lead to 8-4 on Sonny Meade's fourth home run of the season. Altman led off the inning with a walk before Meade hit a shot over the left field wall to bring the Bulldogs within 8-4.
The Spartans responded by blowing the game open in the bottom of the eighth with four runs. Pedro Leon hit a leadoff single through the left side and moved to second on Quinones' single to right field. Wall followed with a triple to right center to score Leon and Quinones. Gehringer then recorded his third hit of the afternoon up the middle to score Wall. Gehringer would score later in the inning on Richards' single to put the Spartans ahead 12-4.
The Spartans will try to carry their momentum into Tuesday night's game as they look to defeat an ACC opponent for the third straight week. UNCG will face NC State at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at the UNCG Baseball Stadium.
AGATE
UNC Greensboro 12, The Citadel 4
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The Citadel.............. 000 200 020 - 4 11 0 (22-15)
UNC Greensboro......114 001 14X - 12 18 1 (13-19)
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Pitchers: UNC Greensboro Warren Slack, Matt Parish, Zach Furl. The Citadel Matt Crim, Matt Reifsnider, Matt Talley, Drew Mahaffey.
Win- Matt Parish (3-1) Loss- Matt Crim (3-4) T-2:42 A-267
HR: UNC Greensboro: Corey Overholtzer (3); The Citadel: Sonny Meade (4)
- UNCG -
