Brevard Edges Trojans
March 10, 2010BREVARD, N.C. -- The Anderson baseball team jumped ahead early and rallied late, but fell just shy at Brevard, 4-3, as the Tornados avenged an earlier defeat to the Trojans in non-conference action at Gil Coan Field Wednesday afternoon. The Trojans (8-16) put one on the board in the first inning as Derek Hipp led off the game with a double to straightaway centerfield. The next batter, Matt Hill, laced a single to right center, bringing Hipp across the plate to put the Trojans up 1-0, before Tornados’ starter Joseph Lepore settled down to retire the side, stranding Hill at third by getting AU’s Blake May on a fly ball to left to end the inning. Brevard (4-10) evened the score up in the second as Stephen Mullis led off the inning, driving the first pitch from Campbell to left center for a double. Mullis advanced to third on a wild pitch and came around to score on Pruitt’s one-out sacrifice fly to left field as the Tornados tied up the game at 1. The first three Tornados batters reached base in the bottom of the third, as Eric Renegar opened the inning with a base hit up the middle and a walk issued to Ronald Patterson moved the freshman shortstop to second. Kramer Clark’s fly ball down the right field line hit the ground to load the bases with none out, but Campbell retired the next two Brevard batters, getting Kellen Moman to fly out and caught Mullis swinging for strike three. Campbell got ahead of Jackie Corn, but then came too far inside, hitting Corn in the back to bring in Renegar and Pruitt singled in Clark and Patterson, with what turned out to be the winning run, to put the Tornados up 4-1 after three innings of play. Lepore issued a walk to May in the fourth and a single to Thomas Padro in the fifth, but Anderson’s B.J. Scarborough was equally effective in relief, shutting down the Tornados offense as the teams headed into the seventh with Brevard still up, 4-1. After getting Ryan Saxon to groundout, Lepore left a pitch over the plate for May as the sophomore put the 2-1 offering over the left field fence for his first homer of the season, cutting the deficit in half, but Lepore retired Jonathan Romano and Padro to end the inning. Bryson Graydon shut down the Tornados in the seventh and Lepore came out to start the eighth, facing one batter before giving way to Brennan Daniels. Anderson threatened in the eighth, placing runners first and third, but Saxon fouled out to Josh Case in front of the Tornados dugout to end the inning. The Tornados placed two on in the eighth as well, but were unable to put one across, giving way to the ninth as the Trojans opened the inning with May and Romano each reaching on singles. Following a sacrifice bunt by Chance Thomas, which moved both runners into scoring position, Ron Patterson tracked down Padro’s line drive to centerfield and made a diving catch, and recovered to make the throw back to the infield. May scored on the play to cut the lead to 4-3, but Daniels recorded the final out as Luke Sawyer flied out to center to finish the game. Anderson’s Brett Campbell (1-1) took the loss for the Trojans, giving up four runs (just one earned) while striking out one in 2.2 innings of work. Joseph Lepore (2-0) wins his second game in the past two days, having picked up the win in the second game of the doubleheader against IUP on Tuesday. Lepore gave up six hits and two earned runs while striking out one on 79 pitches for his second win of the season. Anderson continues its 11-game road swing by visiting Augusta State on Thursday, with first-pitch slated for 6 p.m.
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