MOUNTAINEER BASEBALL

Story by Aric Thomas
(03-26-08)

Eastern Knocks Off Carl Albert

The Eastern Oklahoma State College baseball team (23-7), ranked 18th by the NJCAA, knocked off Carl Albert State College 16-3 Tuesday.  Jimmy Johnson, making his third start as a Mountaineer, improved to 3-0.  He tossed five innings and allowed just one run on five hits.  Sophomore right hander Carter Browning, making his team high 11th appearance, came on to throw a scoreless 6th and 7th innings.  Browning allowed just a hit and struck out two.  Freshman Zack Garling threw the 8th and sophomore Derek Kiker tossed the 9th inning.

Offensively, Eastern got their bats going in the 5th inning.  With the score tied 1-1 entering the bottom of the 5th inning, the Mountaineers posted a five run frame and added seven more in the 6th inning.  In the 5th, Tommie Johnson led off with a triple.  Steve Irvine and Jeff Scardino followed with back to back RBI singles and then Gunner Glad and Casey Gibson added back to back doubles.  After two outs and a Viking error, Blake Mounce completed the five run inning with a RBI double.  Johnson got the 6th inning started also.  After back to back singles from Johnson and Irvine, Scardino hit his second home run of the year.  Next Glad singled, Gibson doubled and then Nate Pettus followed with an RBI single.  Dearth Parker then stepped to the plate and hit his fourth home run of the year.  Nate Pettus added his seventh home run of the year an inning later.

The 16 runs scored by Eastern tied a season high.  Steve Irvine led the way by going 4-4 with a double, three runs scored, two RBI’s and two stolen bases.  Jeff Scardino was also perfect on the day.  He went 3-3 with a sacrifice bunt, home run, two runs scored, three RBI’s and a stolen base.  Gunner Glad (2-4), Casey Gibson (2-4), Nate Pettus (2-5), Dearth Parker (2-5), Blake Mounce (2-5) and Tommie Johnson (2-3) each had two hits.

The Mountaineers begin Bi-State Conference play on Thursday.  They will host Rose State College in a 1:00 pm double header.  Saturday, the two teams will hook up again at Midwest City in another 1:00 pm double header.