It’s safe to say the Volunteer State baseball team has begun to right the ship.
After suffering a three-game conference sweep last week, the Pioneers came home for the first time and won seven games since last thursday — the most important being a three-game sweep over conference foe Dyersburg State Friday and Saturday.
On Friday the Pioneers handed the visitors an 8-2 setback.
VSCC erupted early, scoring four runs in the bottom of the first inning to take control of the game.
Harp singled to lead off the rally with one out. Lynch followed with a single and Cory Cooper loaded the bases with the team’s third safety of the inning.
A sacrifice fly by Danny Pulley scored the first run of the inning, while a walk reloaded the bases.
Blake Bratcher brought home all three runners with a double, making the score 4-0.
Leading 4-2, the Pioneers tacked on a run in the bottom of the fourth and sixth innings to go up 6-2. A two-run fifth closed out the scoring for VSCC.
The Pioneers rapped out 15 hits in the game, led by Watkins, Harp and Bratcher with three each. Pulley added two RBIs.
Chris Beatty earned the win, pitching seven solid innings, scattering nine hits, allowing two earned runs, one walk and striking out seven.
David Strothman pitched the final two innings of shutout ball.
On Saturday, Vol State won in more dramatic fashion, plating four runs in the bottom of the seventh to sneak out with a 7-6 win in the first game.
VSCC also won the second-game 7-6, overcoming a 6-0 Dyersburg State lead in the first.
In the first game, the Pioneers (now 3-3, 9-5) trailed by three entering the inning, but scored four runs on three hits and took advantage of a Dyersburg error.
With one out Cooper reached on an error and Pulley followed with a walk. After a fielder’s choice brought VSCC to its final out, Bratcher came through with an RBI single, cutting the lead to two.
Dustin Crabtree then followed with with a single that scored another run and cut the gap to one.
Puryear then became the hero with a two-run pinch-hit single that gave the hosts the dramatic win and the two-game sweep.
Scotty Rogowski hurled a complete game for the win, improving him to 2-1 on the season. He allowed five hits and just three earned runs, while striking out eight.
Watkins and catcher Chris Brown each had two hits for VSCC.
In the second game, Vol State trailed 6-0 in the first inning but scored four of its own to cut into the lead after one. Another run in the second trimmed the margin to one and solo runs in the third and fourth provided the hosts with the win and the conference sweep.
Dustin Crabtree (1-0) won the game in relief, tossing 3.2 innings of two-hit shutout ball. He struck out six.
Watkins, Harp, Lynch, Cooper and Pulley all had two hits for the Pioneers.
On Sunday, the Pioneers were back in non-conference play and won for the fifth consecutive time, knocking off Miami Hamilton 6-2 and 9-0.
Wesley Nolan improved to 2-0 with the complete-game four-hitter in the first game, allowing just one earned run and striking out five.
Brad Cobb homered for the Pioneers, going 2-for-3 with two RBIs. Crabtree was 1-for-2 with two runs scored an an RBI, while Gallatin product Matt Robison was a perfect 2-for-2 with a run scored in the win.
In the second game, Dane Archer tossed six shutout innings of three-hit ball, walking just one and striking out nine in the win.
Robison was 2-for-3 with a run and RBI, while Craig Thompson homered and had two hits and Lynch added two runs and two RBIs.
• In Thursday’s home-opener, Volunteer State’s baseball team led off the four-day series with a two game sweep of the Lakeland College Lakers from Ohio on Thursday, showing their versatility.
The Pioneers won the first game 6-0 behind a five hit shutout by sophomore Greg Saliba (1-0), and 4-3 in the second, showing their ability to manufacture runs.
“My whole plan was to throw strikes and get ahead early, and let our defense do the rest,” said Saliba.
In the first game sophomore Joel Lynch got things started when he singled up the middle to score sophomore Ahmir Watkins from second to make it 1-0 after one.
Vol State opened it up again in the second with two outs after a throwing error by the Lakers freshman Chris Brown reached first. Watkins singled up the middle to score Brown, then stole second and advanced to third on another throwing error.
Freshman Garrett Harp singled to center to score Watkins, making it a three-run inning.
Both teams remained scoreless for the next three innings until the bottom of the sixth when the Pioneers exploded for two more runs to make it 6-0.
Saliba ended the game with four strikeouts with four hits and one hit by a pitch. Vol State ended the game with seven hits and four RBIs.
“Greg threw the ball exceptionally well today,” said VSCC coach Jeff Smith. “He threw a lot of strikes and had good movement, and was able to place it where ever he wanted.”
Watkins, who went 2-for-3 with one RBI and scored twice, said, “Towards the later innings we just kind of left Greg (Saliba) alone so he could stay in his grove, he pitched really well for us today.”
When asked if the weather was a factor, Lynch said, “Well I’m from Canada so it doesn’t affect me as much, but you just have to be ready to play no matter what the conditions.”
Where Vol State showed total domination in the first game, the second both seemed to show the affects of the weather and played a little more sluggish.
Until the bottom of the third the game was more of a pitching duel, with no team able to get a run in, although both left runners stranded.
In the bottom of the third the Pioneers got on the board when sophomore Justin Humphrey doubled to center, then advanced all the way to home off of two wild pitches.
Lakeland answered in the top of the fourth on a towering homerun by Creighton Tarr to left center to make it 1-1.
Vol State was the next to strike in the bottom of the fifth when Brown hit a double to the left center fence. Brown scored when Justin Kellerman hit a screamer down the right field line for a single, putting the Pioneers up 2-1.
The Lakers again answered back in the top of the sixth. John Wattles led off with a single, and moved to second off a sacrifice bunt. Toby Worman then singled to center to score Wattles to tie the score.
The Pioneers looked to put Lakeland away in the sixth after Craig Thompson reached on a throwing error then stole second and third.
He wasn’t there long, on the next pitch the catcher was unable to handle the curve and Thompson scored putting Vol State up 3-2 heading into the final inning.
Unlike the first game Lakeland didn’t fold loading the bases and scoring on a wild pitch to tie the game at three.
Vol State again showed its ability to manufacture runs when they had to have them. Freshman Heath Puryear took one on the elbow to get on first, and was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt.
Lynch then came in to pinch hit and got a single to center moving Puryear to third, which scored the winning run on a wild pitch to end the game.
“The biggest difference between the first and the second game was we just kicked the ball around a little more and didn’t play as sharp as we needed to,” said Smith. “We were just fortunate to pull this one out.”
Original Post