By Daniel Hooker
WCU Athletics
Senior Gavin Mortenson struck out seven over a season-long eight-inning start and Western Carolina’s offense opened the game with seven runs over the first four frames including a four-run first to claim game one of its final regular-season Southern Conference series on Thursday evening at Gray-Minor Stadium.
Mortenson scattered four runs on six hits while countering four freebies – three walks and a hit batter – with his seven strikeouts. He worked a pair of 1-2-3 innings including striking out the side in a three-up, three-down third inning. Jonathan Todd worked around a hit and two walks with a pair of strikeouts, stranding the bases loaded in the ninth inning to secure WCU’s victory.
With an altered schedule announced on Thursday morning, the three-game series concludes on Friday with the teams slated for a doubleheader beginning at 10 a.m. VMI will honor its seniors between the two games with the regular-season finale scheduled for approximately 1:30 p.m.
Both games on Friday are slated to be broadcast on the Catamount Sports Network with live, streaming audio available online at CatamountSports.com and a video stream through ESPN+ (paid subscription required). Fans can also follow through live stats linked to CatamountSports.com.
Six Catamounts posted multi-hit games as WCU pounded out 15 in scoring its eight runs. Drew Needham (3-for-4) doubled in the first inning as part of his three-hit performance with Mason Holton (2-for-3) driving home a team-best three also with a double. Hayden Friese (2-for-5) singled twice to plate a pair with Kyle Riesselmann (2-for-5) homering down the left-field line.
Nate Stocum (2-for-4) reached three times with a single, double, and an HBP with Trent Turner (2-for-5) singling twice. James Hinson (1-for-5) also collected an RBI on an infield groundout, reaching on a ninth-inning single.
Two Keydets batters combined for six of the team’s seven hits in the loss. Trey Morgan (3-for-3) reached base all four times with a trio of hits including a two-run homer as part of his three RBI, while Bret Cook (3-for-4) singled three times with a strikeout. Owen Prince collected VMI’s fourth run batted in.
Four of WCU’s first five batters reached as the Catamounts were quick out of the gates in Thursday’s opener. Ketterman reached on a single before Stocum was plunked to put two aboard when Needham tallied the first of back-to-back doubles, bouncing one off the wall in left field to plate the first run. Holton then drove a two-base hit down the left-field line to plate two more with Friese capping the opening-frame rally with a run-scoring single.
VMI (26-27, 6-13 SoCon) got one of the runs back in the home portion of the first as Trey Morgan plated Justin Starke who reached on an HBP to make it 4-1 after one.
Riesselmann led off the second inning with a solo home run that hugged the left-field foul line and crossed the fence in fair territory for a solo shot and a 5-1 lead for WCU, but the Catamounts stranded the bases loaded. The guests then tacked on two more in the top of the fourth inning on RBI singles by Holton and Friese to score Turner and Needham. The Keydets got one back in the bottom of the frame, scoring on an infield ground out.
WCU (27-23, 12-7 SoCon) capped its scoring in the top of the sixth inning as Stocum led off with a double as the first of three straight to reach. Needham singled and Holton walked before a run-scoring groundout by Hinson pushed the Catamount advantage to 8-2.
VMI cut the Catamount lead in half in the bottom of the eighth inning on a two-run home run by Morgan before Mortenson induced a flyball and capped his outing with a strikeout looking to squelch the rally. In the ninth, the Keydets loaded the bases with a single and two one-out walks. However, Todd posted his second punchout before getting slugger Grayson Fitzwater to ground out to second to end the game.
With Thursday’s victory coupled with Wofford’s loss at top-ranked Samford, the Catamounts moved to within one win of locking itself into the double-elimination portion of next week’s Southern Conference Baseball Championship, presented by Holston Gases. By percentage points, WCU moved into third place in the standings entering Friday’s games. With one additional victory, WCU would guarantee itself at worst a tie for third place with ETSU and would be seeded fourth. Two wins on Friday would give WCU third – and depending upon the results in Birmingham, could finish tied for second but seeded no higher than third.
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