MOC cages Dogs in opener, 6-0
By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on May 20, 2011 1:47 PM
MOUNT OLIVE -- So far, so good.
Carter Capps tossed a complete game and Mount Olive College opened play in the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional with a 6-0 win over Wingate on Thursday night.
The top-seeded Trojans (42-7 overall) play fourth-seeded Columbus State today at 3 p.m. at Scarborough Field.
"The name of the game this time of year is to survive and advance," said Mount Olive head coach Carl Lancaster. "We made some plays defensively, and we got a good outing on the mound. All that put together got us a win."
The Trojans opened the scoring in the first inning when Joseph Westbrook was hit by a pitch, Jason Simone singled and Jacob Rogers followed with an RBI base knock.
The Bulldogs threatened in each of the first two frames, but failed to score as four base runners were left stranded.
Mount Olive got its offense back in gear in the third inning when Antonio Calloway drew a walk, advanced on a passed ball and scored on a Westbrook single.
The Trojans broke things open in the fifth inning when Callaway drew a second free pass, Ryan Faison belted a double and Westbrook was hit by a pitch. Simone followed with a sacrifice fly and Faison later scored on an error by the Bulldog catcher to push the Mount Olive lead to 4-0.
"We took advantage of some mistakes and we were able to manufacture some runs," said Lancaster. "We knew that we would need to be able to do that because these regional games are usually lower scoring than typical regular season games. Tonight was no different."
The early advantage was more than enough for Capps, who settled down nicely after a frantic first two innings. The North Lenoir graduate did not allow a hit after the fourth stanza en route to the win. Capps went all nine innings and struck out nine batters.
"Carter was a little amped up early on because of the big crowd and obviously the importance of the game," said Lancaster. "Once he calmed down he really threw the ball extremely well for us."
Mount Olive added a run in the sixth inning when Nick Gaeta plated Dan Hayduk with a productive groundout. The Trojans struck for the final time in the eighth frame when Rogers scored on a wild pitch.
Chris Nelson suffered the mound loss for the sixth-seeded Bulldogs (34-21 overall), who played an elimination-round game against second-seeded Francis Marion at 11 this morning.
Columbus State (32-18) and Mount Olive did not play during the regular season. The Cougars earned an at-large bid to the tournament.