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College Of Charleston Edges Furman 7-6 In 10 Innings
May 6, 2005
Mt. Pleasant, S.C. -- Brett Gardner scored on a wild pitch with two outs in the bottom of the 10th-inning lifting 22nd-ranked College of Charleston to a thrilling 7-6 win over Furman in the opener of a three-game Southern Conference series before 502 at Patriots Point Field on Friday.
Charleston, which has won seven in a row, improved to 36-9 overall and 20-2 in league play. The Paladins, which had their school-record eight-game winning streak snapped, fell to 22-21 and 10-11.
Gardner led off the decisive 10th with a walk, moved to second on Phillip Coker's sacrifice bunt and advanced to third on Byron Barber's grounder. Gardner scored with a head-first slide after Furman relief pitcher David Mitchell skipped a wild pitch off catcher Tony Maccani just to the right of home plate.
Charleston rallied to tie the game in the ninth. Trailing 6-4 with two outs and the bases empty, D.J. Wabick walked and Jess Easterling followed with a bloop single to left-center. After Brett Anderson grounded a single to center that scored Wabick making it a 6-5 contest, Brian Hastings was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Freshman Oliver Marmol grounded a single to center that scored Easterling and tied the game at 6-6. Anderson was thrown out at the plate on the play sending the contest into extra innings.
Furman built a 4-1 thanks to a three-run first inning and bases loaded walk to Maccani in the sixth with two outs that scored Matthew Betsill.
Charleston cut the margin to 4-3 in the sixth on an RBI single by Hastings and a run-producing double to right-center by Gardner.
Furman scored a pair of runs in the top of the seventh that extended its lead to 6-3. Charleston scored in the bottom of the frame to narrow the advantage to 6-4.
A.J. Davidiuk paced Furman's 12-hit attack with four hits in four trips to the plate. Charleston got two hits each from Gardner, Wabick and Marmol. Chris Campbell extended his hitting streak to 23 games with a seventh inning single.
Josh McLauglin (2-2) picked up the win in relief. McLaughlin blanked the Paladins on no hits with five strikeouts over the final 3 2/3 innings. Calvin Hurst (1-1) suffered the loss surrendering three runs over the final 1 1/3 innings.
The second game of the series is Saturday at 7:00.
