May 3, 2006
Box Score
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Jay Jackson tripled and drove in three runs in his first game back from illness to help lead Furman past Charleston Southern 8-6 in baseball action Wednesday afternoon at Buccaneer Field.
Jackson, the Paladins' starting freshman rightfielder from Greenville who sat out Furman's three-game Southern Conference series at UNC-Greensboro last weekend with a virus, laced a three-run triple in a four-run Paladin first inning, helping Furman (28-14) build an 8-0 lead.
Charleston Southern (17-31) rallied for six runs in the bottom of the seventh and threatened to tie the game in the ninth after putting runners at second and third inning with no outs. Paladin reliever David Mitchell recovered, however, by retiring Chris Krogmeier on a short fly to right field and Chris Stewart on shallow fly, which Paladin center fielder Andrew Greene converted into a game ending double play by throwing out Justin Fyle at home plate.
Furman's strong ninth inning defensive play made a winner of starting pitcher Patrick Arnett (3-5), who hurled five innings of shutout ball, allowing only three hits and one walk while striking out one. Mitchell's save was his first of the campaign.
The SoCon's leading hitting team with a .336 team batting average, Furman banged out 13 hits against Buccaneer pitching, including two each by Ben Terry, A.J. Davidiuk, Andrew Greene, and Marcus Rose. Terry went 2-for-4 for his fifth straight multi-hit game and scored three runs.
Fyle and Adam Brown topped Charleston Southern's attack with two hits each.
Furman touched up Buccaneer starting and losing pitcher Ryan Rowland (5-2) early, striking for four runs in the first inning. After Terry and Paul Ortenzo led off with back-to-back walks to lead off, Davidiuk singled to load the bases. Jackson followed with a line drive triple down the right field line and later scored on Joe Daysh's groundout.
The Paladins added single runs in the third, fourth, sixth, and seventh innings on the way to an 8-0 lead before Charleston Southern rallied for six runs in its half of the seventh, highlighted by Fyle's two-run single off Paladin reliever Ryan Hudson.
The victory wrapped up a string of eight consecutive away games for the Paladins, who posted a 5-3 record during the road stretch. Furman returns home this weekend to face Elon in a key SoCon series beginning Friday evening at 7:00 p.m.
