Long day ahead at Southeast Regional

By From staff reports
Published in Sports on May 18, 2012 1:48 PM

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MOUNT OLIVE -- Heavy rain and thunderstorms suspended play between Catawba College and Tusculum (Tenn.) College in the 2012 NCAA Division II Southeast Regional on Thursday evening.

Play resumed this at 10 this morning with Catawba leading 3-2 after 61/2 innings.

Top-seeded Mount Olive College faced first-time regional participant Lander (S.C.) University at noon. Regularly-scheduled games in the double-elimination tournament followed the MOC game.

Francis Marion pitchers Spencer Jordan and Don Sandifer combined for a four-hitter an in 11-2 victory over Peach Belt rival Armstrong Atlantic State in the regional opener Thursday morning. Jordan carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning, and wiggled out of trouble in the same inning as well as the sixth.

Jordan permitted one earned run and struck out four. Sandifer retired all six batters he faced, including two by strikeout.

An early-inning error allowed the fourth-seeded Patriots (38-16 overall) to grab a 2-0 lead. Brock McCallister slugged a two-out, RBI single in the fifth -- the first of six runs FMU plated with two outs during different portions of the game.

Jacob Golliday, Tyler Boyd and Brian Paulhus each supplied an RBI single in the sixth inning. McCallister, Reed and Rhodes Dickerson provided RBI knocks in the eighth.

McCallister finished with three hits. Paulhus, Golliday, Tarkenton and Michael Wilson rapped out two hits apiece. Overall, FMU collected 16 hits against four AASU pitchers.

The Patriots face the Catawba-Tusculum winner at 7 p.m. today. AASU played the MOC-Lander winner at 3 p.m.