Catawba’s baseball team got half of what it wanted Saturday afternoon at Newman Park.
The other half, it blundered away to South Altantic Conference front-runner Lenoir-Rhyne.
“Getting knocked down is a bad thing,” coach Jim Gantt said after third-place Catawba split a slow-paced doubleheader. “But not getting up would have been worse. That’s what we did in the second game. We got back up.”
The Indians (26-17 overall, 9-7 SAC) rebounded from a messy 12-8 first-game loss — one that saw ace pitcher Brad Esarey hit four batters and surrender eight earned runs — to post an almost spot-free 9-1 victory in the nightcap.
“If we had lost that second game,” outfielder O.J. Lennon said with a head-shake, “it would have taken away all of our momentum and knocked us out of the race. But people who follow our team know that we always bounce back from losses.”
The split likely caused more damage in the L-R camp. The Bears (23-13, 12-4) had their conference lead trimmed to one game over second-place Wingate (11-5), which swept a Saturday doubleheader from Newberry.
“At least we’re not out of this yet,” said leadoff batter Israel Morrow, acknowledging that Catawba must win each of its four remaining conference games — and then get some help — to win the league title. “Anything’s possible. Anything.”
Morrow went 6-for-8 in the two matches, including a 4-for-4 performance in Game 2. His two-out, run-scoring double off the left-field wall gave the Tribe a 4-1 lead after two innings. Then in the fifth, his smash base hit to left plated teammate Dennis Love and provided a 7-1 lead.
The beneficiary of all this offense was freshman Zach Snyder (4-3), who scattered seven hits and stayed out of harm’s way for most of his six-inning stint. Utililizing fastballs, an occasional curve and knee-buckling change-up, the right-hander kept L-R at bay.
“Zach used their hitters’ aggressiveness against themselves,” said Gantt. “They were overly aggressive against him. He’d get to a hitter’s count, he’d get behind, and he’d throw his change-up.”
Snyder struck out five, walked three and lowered his ERA to 3.11. His best pitch was the 0-2 fastball he snuck past the Bears’ Joe Nichols with the bases loaded and two out in the top of the third inning.
“I just wanted to show them a lot of different looks and keep them off-balance,” he said. “I wanted them to put the ball in play and let our defense do the job.”
It did, producing 11 groundball outs.
“The intensity level was pretty high for that second game,” said Lennon, whose two-run home run off L-R starter Drew Lindley opened the scoring in the last of the first. “They’re a good team but they’re not that much better than us.”
They were in the first game. L-R roughed up Catawba’s Esarey (7-3), who entered play with more wins than any SAC pitcher and boasted its stingiest ERA (1.88). The senior left-hander served up four home runs — three of them by all-conference infielder Craig Sizemore — in his worst outing of the season.
“He just wasn’t sharp,” said Gantt. “When you can’t throw the ball where you want to, you’re in for a long day.”
Esarey’s trouble began in the fourth inning when Sizemore took an inside fastball and pulled it over the right-field wall for a game-tying, two-run homer. In the fifth, Sizemore launched an off-the-plate 2-0 fastball over the wall in left-center, a three-run shot that gave L-R a 6-3 edge. Finally in the sixth, he completed his trifecta with a solo blast that made it 8-5.
“I think (Esarey) had a problem with location,” said Sizemore, the Bears’ home run leader with eight. “He didn’t hit his spots. The first one was inside, the other two outside. After the first one I knew he wouldn’t come inside again, so I was looking for pitches away. And that’s exactly where he put them.”
It’s no surprise that five of Sizemore’s home runs have come at cozy Newman Park. “Every time I come here I see the ball real well,” he said. “The ball’s always right where I want it to be. I guess the park fits my swing.”
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NOTES: Sizemore went 4-for-8 with seven RBIs in the doubleheader. ... Love was Catawba’s Game 1 star. He went 3-for-4 and knocked in four runs, including two on a clutch, eighth-inning single that brought the Indians within 9-8. ... Blair Reynolds belted his fifth home run and had two of Catawba’s 11 hits in the nightcap. ... The series concludes at 1 p.m. today when sophomore Chris Abernathy (4-4, 7.95 ERA) pitches for the Tribe.
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