Bridgewater, Va. – Bridgewater College rode a pair of strong pitching efforts from starters Nolan Shaffer and Alex Foltz to sweep the Guilford College Quakers, 2-1 and 20-3, in Old Dominion Athletic Conference baseball action Sunday.
In the opener, the first two hitters of the game touched Shaffer for hits. Alex Starbuck doubled and John Sumler chased him home with a single for a 1-0 Guilford lead. Shaffer would not allow another hit until the seventh as he silenced the Quakers the rest of the way.
The Eagles tied the score in the bottom of the first when Mike Graves led off with a single took second on Brad Buracker’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Drew Elkins’ two-out single.
Bridgewater pushed across the deciding run in the fourth when Andy Chrismer led off with a single and moved to third on a hit-and-run single by Brett Howell. Chrismer scored on a squeeze bunt by Graves to give the Eagles a 2-1 lead.
Shaffer pitched a complete-game three-hitter to pick up the victory. He struck out five and walked one.
Guilford’s Josh Lane worked four innings and yielded both Bridgewater runs to fall to 2-1 on the year. Drew Gurkin threw two innings of scoreless relief.
The Eagles roughed up the Quakers’ staff for 20 runs and 20 hits in the second game to complete the sweep.
Elkins was 4-for-5 with three RBIs and Chrismer was 4-for-5 with four RBIs. Howell finished the game 3-for-5 with three runs batted in. Mike Lenox, Aaron Read and Alex Hogge belted homers for the Eagles. Read’s was a grand slam blast in the seventh.
Foltz worked eight innings and allowed three runs on five hits. Only one of the runs was earned. He struck out seven and walked just one.
Ryan Hairston, the first of five Guilford hurlers, yielded 11 runs (7 earned) in 3.1 innings. His record falls to 2-3. Joe John tripled for the Quakers, who made four errors in the game.
The Eagles are now 7-3-1 overall and 2-0 in the conference. The Quakers drop to 8-8, 0-4 in the ODAC. Guilford hosts Christopher Newport University Monday (3/10) at 3:00 p.m. in a nonconference game.
Bridgewater 2, Guilford 1 (Mar 09, 2008 at Bridgewater, Va.) (Game 1)
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Guilford………… 100 000 0 – 1 3 0 (8-7, 0-3 ODAC)
Bridgewater……… 100 100 X – 2 7 0 (6-3-1, 1-0 ODAC)
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Pitchers: Guilford – Josh Lane; Drew Gurkin(5). Bridgewater – Shaffer.
Win-Shaffer(2-1) Loss-Josh Lane(2-1) T-1:30 A-105
Game notes: Old Dominion Athletic Conference game. Game: GCB-15
Bridgewater 20, Guilford 3 (Mar 09, 2008 at Bridgewater, Va.) (Game 2)
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Guilford………… 020 100 000 – 3 6 4 (8-8, 0-4 ODAC)
Bridgewater……… 125 330 51X – 20 20 3 (7-3-1, 2-0 ODAC)
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Pitchers: Guilford – Ryan Hairston; Drew Gurkin(4); Reid MacLean(5); Tim Lucas(7);
Andrew McClannon(8). Bridgewater – Foltz; Howell(9).
Win-Foltz(2-1) Loss-Ryan Hairston(2-3) T-2:35 A-125
HR BC – Hogge; Lenox; Read.
Game notes: Old Dominion Athletic Conference game. Gurkin faced 2 batters in the 5th.
Game: GCB-16