WINGATE, N.C. – The Division II leader in home runs, the Wingate Bulldogs (25-19, 14-14 South Atlantic Conference), cranked five home runs in a 14-3 victory over the Carson-Newman Eagles (23-19, 11-17 SAC) Friday evening at Ron Christopher Stadium.
"They just did a great job with approach at the plate," Carson-Newman coach Tom Griffin said. "We knew they were a good hitting team. You gotta pitch really good with them. You can't make mistakes and leave pitches out over the plate."
Senior Joe Tipton (Dandridge, Tenn.) laced his first triple of the year to the left-centerfield gap on the second pitch of the game to begin the first inning. After a walk and strikeout, senior first basemen Evan Jurjevic (New Carlisle, Ind.) lined a base hit into centerfield to plate Tipton and put the Eagles on the scoreboard first.
Shane Billings drove the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first inning down the rightfield line for a double. After a walk, a 6-4-3 double play put Billings on third base with two outs. Bradley Brown skipped a 3-2 pitch off of the mound and into centerfield to score Billings and tie the score at one.
Billings started the bottom of the third inning with his seventh home run of the year, a laser shot that cleared the wall in left-centerfield. A bases loaded ground out by Colby Barnette scored Michael Godinez to extend the Wingate lead to 3-1.
Junior third basemen Brandon Roberts (Davie, Fla.) lined a single inside of the third base bag to begin the top of the fourth frame. Two batters later, senior leftfielder Bo Ausmus (Jefferson City, Tenn.) launched his seventh homer of the year well over the centerfield fence to tie the score at three.
Two of the first three batters reached base safely to start the bottom of the fifth inning for Wingate. On a 2-0 pitch, Barnette hammered his 10th home run of the year into the batting cages in left-centerfield to put the Bulldogs on top 6-3.
A single and a walk set the stage for Brown to begin the bottom of the sixth inning as the designated hitter cranked his eighth home run of the season over the left-centerfield wall to extend the home team's lead to 9-3.
For the first time in the game, the Bulldogs batted around in the bottom of the seventh inning scoring four runs on an RBI single from Godinez and a three-run homer from Josh Clark to extend the lead to 13-3.
Billings hit his second home run of the day over the scoreboard in leftfield with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning to make it 14-3.
Three Wingate hitters had multi-hit days led by a 4-for-6 effort by Billings who went yard twice, drove in two and scored four times.
Senior righthander Quinton Yocom (Cable, Ohio) took the loss falling to 3-4 on the season by walking a career-high five men in five innings while yielding eight earned runs on nine hits with three strikeouts.
The Eagles and Bulldogs wrap up their three-game series Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. Tune into the audio broadcast on the Eagle Sports Network by visiting cneagles.com/live for live coverage of both contests.
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