Box Score CHARLESTON, S.C. – UNCG Baseball dropped its first Southern Conference matchup of the year on Saturday afternoon at Joseph P. Reilly Park, falling 7-5 to The Citadel Bulldogs. UNCG is now 24-8 on the year, and 4-1 in the SoCon. The Citadel improves to 13-19, and 3-2 in the SoCon.
“Tough loss, we didn't play as clean as we needed to, to win that game.” Head Coach Link Jarrett said, “The wind was different today and it wasn't a clean day defensively. Some of our mistakes on the mound and defensively came back to bite us. Offensively we battled, their starting pitcher did a very nice job, used his fastball well. When we started to get to him they brought in their closer, Lavery, who's a good arm, with that sidearm delivery. We had chances, but offensively we didn't capitalize. We couldn't quite get over the hump. The game ended on a hard hit ball but we didn't capitalize on the chances we had.”
The Spartan offense knocked out eight hits in the game, with Andrew Moritz leading the team with two. Moritz has now earned a base hit in 16-straight games, while reaching base in a team-best 28 games. Ben Spitznagel (Cincinnati, Ohio/Wabash Valley CC) added a hit and scored two runs, with L.J. Kalawaia (Wailuku, Hawai'i/Ohlone College) finishing with a hit and a run scored.
Ryne Sigmon (Danville, Va./Danville CC) led the Spartans with two RBI. Dillon Stewart (Dunn, N.C./Brunswick CC), Devin Ruiz (Pennsauken, N.J./Paul VI), and Cesar Trejo (Greensboro, N.C./Ragsdale) all had a hit in the contest.
Bryce Hensley (Asheville, N.C./Catawba Valley CC) (4-1) started and picked up his first loss of the season Saturday afternoon. The sophomore southpaw logged 4.0 innings, allowing six hits, seven runs, six earned, and struck out five hitters. Andrew Wantz (Holly Springs, N.C./Holly Springs) worked 4.0 shut out innings, allowing only two hits with three strikeouts.
The Spartans took the lead in the top of the very first inning. Spitznagel and Kalawaia were hit by pitches to put runners on, before a walk to Stewart loaded the bases. Sigmon hit a ground ball to short that was mishandled by The Citadel shortstop allowing Spitznagel to score.
The Citadel tied the game up in the bottom of the first frame. With one out, Shy Phillips reached first after a UNCG error and came in to score on a triple from Mike Deese.
UNCG got a run back in the top of the third inning. Moritz led off with a single and moved to third on a Kalawaia single to left. A wild pitch allowed him to score and cut the lead in half, 4-2.
The Bulldogs were able to increase their lead in the bottom of the fourth. After a single and a walk put two on, Ben Peden hit his second home run of the season to give The Citadel a 7-2 lead.
UNCG was able to cut the lead to 7-5 after scoring three runs in the top of the seventh. After two singles got the inning started, Kalawaia hit a sharp grounder to shortstop, but the throw attempting to get Spitznagel heading to third hit him and UNCG was able to load the bases with no outs. Woody brought home Spitznagel after hitting a sharp grounder to third. After a wild pitch moved Kalawaia and Woody into scoring position, Sigmon hit his seventh double of the year to left field to bring in two and cut into the Bulldog lead.
The Spartans return to action on Sunday, April 10th at 1:00 p.m. as they will face The Citadel Bulldogs in the rubber match of the three game series at Joseph P. Reilly Park.
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