April 12, 2008

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GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Furman claimed an 11-9 win over the College of Charleston in the completion of a Friday suspended game and later recorded its second victory of the day with a 5-3 decision over the Cougars in Saturday's regularly scheduled Southern Conference baseball contest at Furman Stadium.

The two wins gave Furman (19-13, 5-6 SoCon) its first series victory over the College of Charleston (23-11, 8-3 SoCon) since 2003 and also snapped the Cougars' streak of 21 consecutive league road series victories dating back to 2004.

Furman, which has won seven of its last nine games, has now matched last year's 19-game win total.

In the completed game from Friday, Joey Rodgers' two, three-run home runs and seventh inning sacrifice RBI highlighted a seven-RBI performance and keyed the Paladins to the win.

Rodgers, a senior center fielder from Cincinnati, Ohio, went 2-for-3 in the contest and delivered his first clout in the fourth inning off College of Charleston starter Austin Garrett to give the Paladins a 4-0 lead. After the Cougars got on the board with a run in the fifth, Rodgers came back in the Furman fifth with his second three-run blast, his seventh home run of the season, over the left field fence to finish off a five-run Paladin inning and stretch the Paladin advantage to 9-1.

The College of Charleston sliced into Furman's lead with a four-run seventh that featured a two-run home run by Jeremie Tice and solo route jobs by Michael Harrington and Brandon Sizemore.

The Cougars got three more in the eighth to make it 10-8 on an RBI double by Matt Leeds and run-scoring singles by Tice and Michael Kohn, but when play was resumed Saturday Furman pushed across an unearned run in the bottom of the frame on a Brian Harrison's two-out RBI single to left field.

In the ninth Paladin reliever Nick Karrow yielded a one-out solo home run to Cole Rakar but rallied by striking out pinch-hitter Joah Brodin and retiring Clay McCord on a groundout to end the game.

Joining Rodgers' with solid work at the plate were Bobby Hubbard, who went 3-for-4 and scored a pair of runs, and Matt Hemingway and Reese Wade, who had two hits each.

The College of Charleston was paced by Tice's 3-for-3, three-RBI performance and by Clay McCord, whoc went 3-for-6 and scored three runs.

Jay Jackson (7-1) earned the win for Furman with 6 1/3 innings of solid work. The junior right-hander and former Christ Church Episcopal School standout, scattered eight hits and alllowed only three runs, all earned, and five walks while striking out three.

The loss went to Austin Garrett (5-1), who tossed 4 1/3 innings before being pulled. He gave up seven hits and six runs, three of which were earned, and walked three to go along with six strikeouts.

In Saturday's regularly scheduled game Paladin pitchers Mason Smith and Ian Parry combined to tame the nation's top scoring offense (11.2 runs per game) in a 5-3 Furman victory.

Smith (3-2), a Columbia native and Drehr High product, earned the win after pitching seven innings and limiting the College of Charleston to only five hits and three runs before departing with a 4-3 lead.

Parry, meanwhile, came on to start the eighth and worked a perfect final two frames while striking out three to earn his second save of the season. The Paladin duo also did not issue a walk.

The Paladins combined a Bobby Hubbard RBI single with a pair of Cougar error and two wild pitches by starting and losing pitcher Casey Lucchese (4-2) to grab a 3-0 lead in the third.

Another Cougar error in the fourth allowed Furman to stretch its lead to 4-0 before Tice's two-run double down the left field line in the fifth narrowed the lead to 4-2.

Sizemore's one-out solo home run in to left field in the sixth made it 4-3, but the Paladins pushed across a run in the eighth when Brian Harrison sprinted home from third base to score ahead of a wild throw from Cougar shortstop Cole Rakar following a sharp grounder off the bat of Marcus Rose.

Parry followed up his perfect eight with a pair of strikeouts in the ninth to secure the victory.

Hubbard had two of Furman's seven hits, including a double. Sizemore collected two of the Cougars' five hits in the contest.

Furman goes for the series sweep on Sunday in a 1:00 p.m. game.