MOUNTAINEER BASEBALL

Eastern Scores 46 Runs While Sweeping Redlands and Enid
Story by Staff – 03/23/09

The Eastern Oklahoma State College baseball team swept a pair of double headers over the weekend.  On Saturday, the Mountaineers knocked off Redlands 14-10 and 8-3.  Then on Sunday, Eastern defeated Enid 11-4 and 13-7.  The Mountaineers have now won five in a row and during those five games compiled a total of 70 runs.

On Saturday, Redlands got out to a 2-0 lead in the 2nd inning.  Eastern answered back with four runs in the 3rd and three runs in the 4th.  With one out in the 3rd inning, Bryce Killingsworth, Tommie Johnson and Jeff Scardino hit consecutive singles.  Stephen Hagen then belted his 9th home run of the season.  Houston Slemp and Justin Klusak led off the 4th inning with back to back home runs.  Killingsworth singled with one out and scored on a ground out by Scardino.  Redlands scored three runs in the bottom of the 5th inning to cut the Mountaineer lead to 7-5, but Eastern put the game out of reach with seven runs in the top of the 6th inning.  Klusak capped off the scoring with a grand slam, his second home run of the game.  Jared Coon picked up the win on the mound.

In game two, Redlands took a 1-0 lead in the 1st inning.  Eastern answered with four runs in the 2nd.  Casey McCollum led off with a walk; Killingsworth’s sacrifice bunt moved him to 2nd base.  Kaleb Brawner singled and then J.T. Gasso’s sacrifice fly scored McCollum.  Ben Kozma singled, Johnson doubled and Scardino singled to drive in the fourth run of the inning.  Redlands scored a run in the 3rd inning and the Mountaineers scored a single run in the 4th.  Gasso singled and later scored on a wild pitch.  Redlands cut the lead to 5-3 in the bottom of the 6th inning.  Eastern responded again and put the game out of reach with three more runs in the top of the 7th.  Hagen hit his 10th home run of the season to lead off the inning.  Klusak then doubled and McCollum followed that with his second home run of the season.  Jimmy Johnson picked up his second win of the year and Scardino tossed two innings to pick up the save.

On Sunday, Eastern jumped out to an early lead against Enid and never looked back.  Sloppy defense by Enid contributed to three runs in the top of the 1st inning for the Mountaineers.  Jeff Scardino had the only hit in the inning which was a bunt single.  Eastern scored single runs in the 2nd and 3rd innings.  In the 2nd, Bryce Killingsworth RBI single scored Cameron Green who had doubled to lead off the inning.  Justin Klusak’s double scored Jesse Santo in the 3rd inning.  Leading 5-1 heading to the top of the 5th inning, Eastern struck for four more runs to extend the lead to 9-1.  Houston Slemp hit his second home run of the year and Tommie Johnson had a RBI double in the inning.  Stephen Hagen hit his 11th home run of the season in the top of the 6th inning.  It was his third consecutive game with a home run.  Bryce Killingsworth hit his second home run of the season in the top of the 7th inning.  Enid scored two in the 6th and one in the 7th to make the final score 11-4.  Zack Garling pitched 5 1/3 strong innings to pick up the win.  Garling allowed three runs on four hits while striking out 8 batters.

Eastern continued its strong offensive run in the second game by scoring in every inning but one.  Jeff Scardino went 3-4 with two doubles, two runs, a RBI and a sacrifice bunt.  Bryce Killingsworth also went 3-4 with a double, three runs scored and a stolen base.  Phil Parcell picked up his second win of the season on the mound.