Elon Baseball Rallies to Down Davidson, 8-3

ELON, N.C. – Trailing by two runs in the sixth inning, the Elon Phoenix offense erupted for four scores on its way to an 8-3 victory over the Davidson Wildcats from Latham Park on Wednesday, March 4. The win lifted the Phoenix to 6-3, while Davidson dipped to 5-3 on the season.

Down 3-1 after the top of the sixth inning, Elon began its rally when Kory Shumate reached on a fielder’s choice and moved to second on a passed ball. After a Joey Tomkosingle put runners on the corners, Casey Jones sent a 2-2 pitch into left-center for a double that made it a 3-2 contest. With two down, Chris King drove the 2-2 delivery deep to center and over the wall for his second home run of the year, this one giving the Phoenix a 5-3 lead that it would never relinquish.

Elon tacked on three more in the eighth after back-to-back throwing errors on sacrifice bunts loaded the bases led to a RBI walk and a two-run, pinch-hit double from Wil Leathers.

Davidson scored one each in the third and fourth innings to grab an early 2-0 lead. The maroon and gold got one back on a King RBI double in the fifth before the Wildcats extended their lead to 3-1 with an unearned run in the top of the sixth.

Picking up the first win of his collegiate career was Nick Beaulac (1-0). Beaulac allowed one unearned run in 1.1 relief innings, striking out two. A quartet of Elon relievers threw the final three innings, giving up just one hit and fanning four.

The loss went to Westin Whitmire (1-1) who allowed four runs on four hits in just two-thirds of an inning of relief. Davidson starter Nick Neitzel threw three no-hit innings and struck out four while facing the minimum.

King recorded three of Elon’s eight hits and drove in four. He also scored two runs. It was the only multi-hit outing of the game for the Phoenix. Quinn Bower went 1-for-4 to extend his streak of reaching base safely to 15 games.

Elon will face off with another former Southern Conference rival this weekend as the Phoenix heads to Charleston, S.C., for a three-game series at The Citadel. Friday’s first pitch has been moved up two hours and is now set for 4 p.m. at Joe Riley Park.