MOC baseball wins two
By Andrew Stevens
Published in Sports on February 26, 2011 11:31 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- Carter Capps flirted with history.
Mike Knox changed it.
Capps took a perfect game into the sixth inning of game one and Knox became the first Mount Olive play to ever hit four home runs in a game and the Trojans swept a doubleheader from Conference Carolinas foe St. Andrews on Saturday at Scarborough Field.
Mount Olive won game one 16-1 and prevailed 3-0 in game two.
Knox hit home runs in the first, fifth, sixth and seventh innings of the opener and finished with six RBI. He became the first Division II player since Tusculum's Matt Riggs on May 12, 2005 to hit four homers in a game. Knox also walked five times and reached base in all 10 of his at-bats in the doubleheader. He increased his home run total for the season to 11 and his RBI count to 26. The Trojans tallied 18 hits in the opener.
"If Mike didn't get a hit he walked and he's got to get used to that," said Mount Olive head coach Carl Lancaster. "Some people are going to pitch to him more effectively. He's was huge for us. There's no question about it."
Capps struck out six and surrendered two hits with no walks in six shutout innings. The sophomore didn't allow a hit until pinch-hitter Dalton Steed singled to lead off the sixth inning. Kris Barone tossed three innings of one-run relief.
"We wanted to get him out if we could and save some bullets," said Lancaster. "Carter threw really, really well I thought."
Knox's solo home run to left gave the Trojans a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning in game one. Dan Hayduk scored as part of a double-steal in the bottom of the second to stretch the lead to 2-0. Will Bynum's RBI single put Mount Olive in front 3-0.
Jacob Rogers' RBI single in the bottom of the third inning gave the Trojans a 4-0 lead. Ryan Faison's RBI groundout in the fourth inning and Knox's solo homer in the fifth pushed the advantage to 6-0. Tyler Smith's RBI groundout gave Mount Olive a 7-0 lead.
Jason Simone and Knox hit back-to-back solo home runs in the bottom of the sixth to increase the margin to 9-0. Bynum tacked on an RBI groundout in the seventh and Jason Simone provided an RBI single.
Knox's fourth homer of the game was a three-run blast to left field in the bottom of the seventh. Antonio Callaway added an RBI double.
Simone's RBI infield single broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth inning in game two. Callaway's RBI single in the bottom of the fifth stretched the lead to 2-0. Jacob Rogers' added a sac-fly in the home half of the sixth inning.
Pete Levitt earned the win on the mound in game two. Levitt pitched a complete game shutout while surrendering three hits and three walks with five strikeouts.
The Trojans (12-2, 2-0 Conference Carolinas) and Knights (4-8, 0-2) conclude the three game series at 1 p.m. today.
"It's huge to get off to a good a start in the conference," said Lancaster. "The game of baseball of is funny. You score big in game one and in game two you've got a 3-0 game. You've got to go out and compete every day."