May 9, 2006
Box Score
BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. -- Jay Jackson pitched seven innings and hit a three-run home run to lead Furman past Gardner-Webb 13-9 in baseball action Tuesday afternoon at Varsity Field.
The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for Furman (29-17) while Gardner-Webb (22-36) dropped its sixth straight.
Jackson (2-0), a freshman righthander who had been slowed recently with a virus, made his first start as a pitcher in over two weeks and allowed seven runs on seven hits while walking four and recording two strikeouts. He benefited from five Gardner-Webb errors, which led to seven unearned runs, and 14 Furman hits, including his own three-run home run as part of a five-run Paladin sixth inning that gave the Paladins an 11-4 lead. The former Christ Church Episcopal School standout went 2-for-6 with four RBI and two runs scored.
Joe Daysh topped Furman offensively with a 4-for-5 performance that included three RBI and three runs scored, and Tony Maccani, the Southern Conference's leading hitter, went 3-for-5 with an RBI.
Gardner-Webb was paced Matt Maloney, who went 2-for-5 with a home run and three RBI.
The Bulldogs took a 3-0 lead after two innings against Jackson before Furman used four hits, an error, a passed ball, and a balk to score six unearned runs in the fifth inning against Gardner-Webb starting pitcher Taylor Brooks (0-1). Daysh' two-run double to left field highlighted the frame.
After Gardner-Webb cut the lead to 6-4 with a run in the bottom of the fifth, the Paladins tacked on five more runs in the sixth, including Jackson's ninth home run of the season, a three-run blast to left centerfield.
Jackson walked the first two Bulldogs he faced in the seventh and gave up a three-run home run to Maloney as part of a five-run rally that cut Furman's lead to 11-7, but the Paladins answered with two runs in the top of the eighth to put the game out of reach.
Furman returns home for a important three-game Southern Conference series against league leading College of Charleston beginning Friday at 7:00 p.m.
