[Baseball] Baseball falls short in Offensive Shootout with Coker

LAURINBURG, N.C. - The St. Andrews University Baseball team's offense continued to remain hot on Tuesday at home but their pitching let them down as they fell 11-10 to Div. II Coker College (S.C.).

COKER 11, SAU 10

The SAU offense got the team out to a 3-0 lead after two innings before Coker rallied for three runs of their own in the third off sophomore starter Davis O'Brien (SO/Kernersville, NC). SAU would then a run each in the 4th and 5th innings to lead 5-4 after six frames.

However, Coker would then knock O'Brien out of the game in the 7th inning scoring three runs off of him and two more off freshman reliever Charles Tortorici (FR/Fredericksburg, VA) as they put up a five spot to take the 9-5 edge. But SAU would not be done scoring four of their own in the bottom half to tie the game at 9.

Unfortunately for the Knights, Coker would add the two winning runs in the 8th inning off sophomore reliever Matthew Strickland (SO/Pembroke, NC) (3-1) while SAU could just manage one run over the next two frames to fall one run short of the victory.

The game was SAU's 9th scoring double-digit runs while they had 8 different players record hits on the day with 7 of them recording multi-hit games as SAU collected 17 hits.

Senior CF Ryne Dickens (SR/Reidsville, NC) led the offense going 3 for 4 with his 8th home run of the season and 4 RBIs while sophomore 3B J.R. Polak (SO/Smithfield, VA) also went 3 for 4 while driving in two runs and scoring two more. Dickens is now hitting .375 with team-highs in hits with 57, runs scored with 35, 8 home runs and 31 RBIs.

Others recording multi-hit games included infielders Luis Barrios (FR/Richmond, VA) and Cam Harvey (SO/Greenville, SC) with senior LF Nolan Pierce (SR/Laurel Hill, NC), junior DH Ivan Vazquez (JR/Caguas, Puerto Rico), and sophomore catcher Nick Locklear (SO/Rockingham, NC) all knocking two hits apiece as well.

O'Brien tossed 6 and 1/3 innings for the no-decision allowing 6 hits and 7 runs (just 3 earned) on 2 walks and 2 strikeouts while Tortorici allowed five hits and 2 unearned runs with a strikeout in the 7th as well. Strickland allowed two runs and two hits to get the loss dropping to 3-1 while junior reliever Michael Wright (JR/Whitakers, NC) tossed a scoreless ninth.

SAU falls to 18-25 overall while Coker improves to 16-24 as the teams split the season series.

The Knights are next on the road tonight at D-3 Pfeiffer University (NC) at 6:00 PM.

SAU will next remain home to host conference foe Milligan College on Senior Weekend. Game one is set for Friday at 3:00 with a DH set to begin Saturday at Noon during Alumni Weekend as well.