Bats, Apicella lead domination of Belmont Abbey

BELMONT, N.C. – The Carson-Newman Eagles (21-24) cranked out 14 hits and sophomore starting pitcher Vince Apicella (Dillsburg, Pa.) hurled seven scoreless innings to help the Eagles dominate the Belmont Abbey Crusaders (17-28) 10-3 Wednesday afternoon at Abbey Yard.

"We have had a couple days of just hitting in the cage because of the weather to keep us relaxed," head coach Tom Griffin said of his hitters. "I thought our at-bats were good. We were hoping to see more of that this year."

Carson-Newman wasted no time as senior second basemen Peter Rajkovich (Stockton, Calif.) reached on an error by the shortstop. After a sacrifice bunt pushed him over to second base and a pop out, junior right fielder Bo Ausmus (Jefferson City, Tenn.) lanced a single into centerfield to score Rajkovich and put the visitors on top 1-0.

In the second inning, the Eagles sent seven men to the plate. Junior designated hitter Cody Fox (Seymour, Tenn.) drew a four-pitch walk to begin the frame and moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt. A bunt single by junior centerfielder Evan Kirkpatrick (Jefferson City, Tenn.) laid down a perfect bunt single to put men at the corners. Junior catcher J.D. Cowart (Athens, Tenn.) lunged for an outside pitch and tapped it back to the pitch for a perfect squeeze bunt as Fox scored on the play. Rajkovich lined a base hit into center to make it a 3-0 Eagle lead.

Carson-Newman doubled its lead in the fourth inning after a pair of hit batters and another error plated Kirkpatrick. Ausmus capped the stanza with a two-run single down the right field line.

Rajkovich capped a two-run fifth inning with his second hit of a game, a solid single down the left field line to give Carson-Newman an 8-0 advantage.

Pinch hitter Greg Jones (Maryville, Tenn.) singled to left center field with two outs to plate the Eagles' ninth run of the contest in the sixth inning.

The fifth error committed by the home team allowed the Eagles to push another run across the plate in the top of the ninth inning.

Belmont Abbey's Quinn Hawksworth clubbed a three-run home run over the left field wall to put the Crusaders on the scoreboard in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Apicella improved to 3-3 on the year going seven scoreless innings with seven strikeouts, three hits and one walk.

"The key was his breaking pitch," Griffin said of Apicella's effort. "His secondary pitches, he was able to throw for strikes at a higher percentage. He has to be able to do that."

Overall, the Eagles had hits in eight of the nine innings and scored at least one run in six frames. Ten different players tallied at least one hit in the game for Carson-Newman.

Rajkovich went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored while Ausmus went 2-for-4 with three RBI.

Griffin's group has Thursday off before making its final road trip of the season to face the South Atlantic Conference leading Catawba Indians Friday evening at 6 p.m.

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