Trojans roll past Virginia State
By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on March 14, 2012 1:48 PM
MOC Sports Information
MOUNT OLIVE -- JUCO transfer Geno Escalante became the third player in Mount Olive history and the second in less than three weeks to hit for the cycle, and the No. 27-ranked Trojans throttled Virginia State, 20-5, at Scarborough Field on Tuesday afternoon.
Escalante performed the rare feat in ascending order -- single, double, triple and home run. Braden Reitano, who drew three walks and scored three runs against VSU, became the first Mount Olive player to hit for the cycle at Scarborough Field and in Conference Carolinas play during a 21-7 thrashing of Belmont Abbey on Feb. 25.
Former MOC slugger Michael Knox emerged the first-ever player in MOC history to hit for the cycle during a 12-5 win over N.C. Wesleyan on Feb. 15, 2011.
Cameron Sherrer delivered a career-best five RBI, while Jermaine Berry and Jacob Rogers scored four runs apiece against VSU. Rogers was named the Conference Carolinas player-of-the-week earlier in the day.
Mount Olive freshman Garinder Rakkar got his first start on the mound and limited Virginia State to an unearned run on four hits through four innings, but came out with nobody out in the top of the fifth after hitting a batter and issuing a walk.
Zach Smith (3-2) retired all three batters he faced on groundouts and got credit for the win. Chris Hinton entered in the top of the seventh with nobody out and the bases loaded, and retired all three batters he faced. Skyler Sopotnick and Josh Frederick each threw one inning of two-strikeout relief.