MOC downs Wingate baseball
By MOC Sports Information
Published in Sports on February 13, 2012 1:48 PM
MOC Sports Information
WINGATE -- No. 1-ranked Mount Olive posted four eighth-inning runs and Talton Cherry retired the final four batters he faced during a come-from-behind, 10-8 victory over Wingate on Sunday afternoon.
The Trojans won the three-game series 2-1.
Down 8-6, Bryan Dunlavey got plunked to start the MOC eighth and moved into scoring position on Bradon Reitano's one-out base hit. A wild pitch allowed both runners to move to third and second base, respectively.
Wingate pitcher Steven Vaughan recorded his second strikeout of the inning before giving way to Ryan Fitzpatrick (0-1). Fitzpatrick was one strike away from getting out of the inning, but Jake Rogers drew a walk to keep the inning alive for Nick Gaeta.
Gaeta's legged out a grounder to second base. When the throw to first got away, the race was on for Mount Olive. Dunlavey scored on the hit and Reitano tied the game on the error. Another throwing error on the play allowed Rogers and Gaeta to circle the bases as well.
The rally made a winner of Trojan hurler Justin Weaver. Weaver, Chris Hinton and Cherry settled things down for Mount Olive after the Bulldogs (5-2) scored eight unanswered runs -- seven unearned in the fourth and fifth innings combined.
Weaver (1-0) allowed one hit in 11/3 innings.
Cherry logged the save.
Gaeta finished with three hits for the Trojans, while Reitano and Oliver had two apiece. All of the Trojans' 12 hits were singles.
Mount Olive (5-1 overall) returns home for a doubleheader against LeMoyne (N.Y.) College on Saturday. The teams play a single game Sunday.