College baseball: Indians win; two more homers by Shepherd
Published 9:13 am Monday, February 24, 2020
Catawba sports information
GREENEVILLE, Tenn. — The bats came to play Sunday afternoon as the Catawba baseball team (11-2, 3-0 SAC) extended their win streak to 11 games after a 10-4 victory over Tusculum (9-7, 0-3 SAC).
The beginning of the contest didn’t go so well for the Indians as the Pioneers scored three first inning runs off starter Bryan Ketchie. After the first, however, Ketchie pitched solid as he went 6.2 innings, giving up eight hits and three runs. He struck out four.
Catawba got on the board in the second when Hunter Shepherd hit a two-run homer to center field. Cameron Morrison then came up later in the inning and hit a big fly of his own to tie the game 3-3. Morrison would end the game 4-for-5 with three runs scored. The Indians then scored five runs in the third inning to gain an 8-3 lead and they wouldn’t look back.
Shepherd started the third by hitting his second homer of the afternoon, then Joe Butts reached on an error to score Morrison. Later, Lee Poteat scored Jeremy Simpson to make it 7-3. Luke Spiva would single home a run as well to finish off the five-run frame.
The final two runs came off a two-run double by Butts in the fourth. Tusculum would score their final run in the bottom of the ninth with the game already out of hand.
DJ Laxton, Sawyer Strickland and Pearce Wilhelm pitched out of the bullpen for Catawba, allowing just one run. Meanwhile for the Pioneers, Grant Crosby got the loss as he went just 1.1 innings and gave up three runs.
The Indians host North Greenville at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
