PEMBROKE, N.C. – The UNC Pembroke baseball team snapped Lander's two-game winning streak Saturday afternoon when the Braves defeated Lander, 3-1 and 3-2, in a Peach Belt Conference doubleheader at Sammy Cox Field. (Game 1 Box | Game 2 Box)
In the first game, UNCP sent its entire order to the plate in a three-run sixth inning behind Justin Yow's second consecutive quality start. The Braves (28-19, 10-10 PBC) stranded 13 runners on the base paths and managed just six hits on the day, but still managed to pick up their second consecutive league series opener. Lander falls to 18-24, 6-15. The final game of the series will begin at 1 p.m. Sunday.
Jason Morales singled and walked twice to pace the hit column for the Black & Gold, but it was a pair of RBI by Derek Funk (1-for-3) that proved the be the difference in the game. Keith Whitman and Jason Coker both scored runs on 1-for-3 hitting lines, with Stuart Champion crossing the plate after being hit
by pitch in the decisive frame.
The Bearcats got two hits apiece from both Malcolm McLeod and AJ Nunziato, but stranded seven on the paths themselves, including six in scoring position.
Yow (6-5) scattered five hits over eight strong innings from the mound for the Braves, while offsetting four walks with five strikeouts. Jake Hover (2-3) saddled the tough-luck loss for Lander despite striking out four and allowing just one earned run over 5-1/3 innings of work.
Yow walked the first two Lander batters in the third, and an ensuing sacrifice bunt by Robert Skinner moved both runners into position and set the table for a RBI groundout by Josh Lovvorn. The Braves got runners into scoring position in both the fourth and fifth innings, but could not find the answer to the
early run by the visitors until the sixth.
Whitman reached on error to begin the frame, but was joined on the bags by Champion (hit by pitch) and Coker (walk) who both reached with one out showing. Funk's single through the left side would plate a pair of runs, with Josh Bentley providing an insurance score on a sacrifice fly to right field.
In the second game, the Braves broke a 1-1 tie with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third
inning and held off a late rally by the Bearcats.
Morales drove in a pair of runs to highlight a 2-for-3 night at the late, with Jon-Jon Mirra plating a run on a 1-for-4 hitting line. Bentley walked twice and scored once for the Braves as well. Lander got base hits from five different players, with T.J. Guinan and Nate Mangiapane both knocking in runs on 1-for-4 plate performances.
Josh Bagley (6-2) issued five free passes in the game, but the freshman yielded just three hits and one earned run over six innings from the mound to snap a personal two-game losing streak.
Ches Courtney (1-1) picked up the loss for the Bearcats after surrendering three earned runs on four hits in just 3-2/3 innings from the hill.
UNCP took an early lead on Morales's RBI double in the first, but Lander utilized a pair of errors by the host team to plate one of their own in the second and knot the game back up. Funk drew a full-count walk to begin the third and was plated a short time later on Mirra's double down the left field line. Morales would provide the final run of the game in the inning as well when he launched a deep fly ball to the gap in left field that allowed Mirra to trot home easily from third base.
Lander put together a couple of late-inning rallies to make things interesting. Mangiapane's two-out RBI single in the sixth cut the Bearcats' deficit to just a single run.
