SALISBURY, N.C. – Needing extra innings in the nightcap to decide the contest, the Anderson University (4-4, 0-2 SAC) baseball team found themselves on the unfavorable side of a doubleheader sweep as they dropped a pair of games to No. 18 Catawba (6-3, 2-0 SAC) on Friday, February 14.
Senior Walker Case (Horseshoe, N.C.) pitched a brilliant outing in the second game of the day, allowing just one run in six innings of work. Freshman Kaleb Owens (Easley, S.C.) kept the momentum going for the Trojans over the next two and a third.
At the plate, junior Mac Ketchin (Mount Pleasant, S.C.) and graduate Kyle Caccamise (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) provided most of the offense on the day, each posting a trio of hits in the opening contest to go with the 11 total hits that the Trojans put together in the opener. Caccamise was one of only two Anderosn players to record a hit in the second game.
GAME ONE: Catawba 8, Anderson 4
The Catawba Indians were able to jump out to an early advantage scoring a single run in the first and a trio of runs in the bottom of the third to stretch their advantage to 4-0. A sacrifice fly in the top of the fifth by Ketchin plated the first run of the day for the Trojans, but the Catawba Indians were able to stop them at just one in the frame.
They would go on to score a pair of runs of their own in the fifth and sixth innings before the Trojans would try and mount their comeback in the seventh and eighth innings. Ketchin blasted a two-run shot of the left field wall in the seventh to bring the margin back to just five and then added another RBI to his stat line in the eighth to notch the score at 8-4. However, that was all the Anderson offense would muster the rest of the way, dropping the 8-4 final.
GAME TWO: Catawba 2, Anderson 1 (9 innings)
In the scheduled short game of the weekend series, it took a full game length to decide the winner as neither team wanted to give up the winning run in the late goings of the contest. An RBI-double by junior Braeden Harrison (Spartanburg, S.C.) scored the Anderson run in the top of the second and Catawba followed that up with a run of their own in the third. That's where the scoreline would sit as the two team's pitchers battle back and forth into extra innings.
Both teams would move runners into scoring position in the opening extra frame, but it was Catawba who would take advantage of a defensive miscue on the part of the Trojans to plate the winning run in the bottom of the ninth and take the 2-1 win.
The two teams will wrap up their three-game series on Sunday, February 16 at 4:00 p.m.
