Two-nineteen.
That’s what happens when opposing pitchers decide to quit throwing fastballs to prolific fastball hitters. Just ask Catawba outfielder Curt Motsinger.
“I know, I know,” he said when informed of his paltry batting average halfway through Saturday’s doubleheader split with visiting Mars Hill.
“I really haven’t been seeing the pitches I saw last year,” he added. “And when I do, I haven’t been taking advantage of it.”
Motsinger, a .369 hitter with good power numbers last season, began restoring his reputation in yesterday’s second game. He went 3-for-3 and stroked a pair of solo home runs in Catawba’s 3-2 win.
“I’m learning to hit pitches on the corners and just off the plate,” he said after boosting his 2001 average to .250. “The two I hit out tonight were both on the inside corner. Finally, I took advantage of something.”
The Indians (15-8, 3-1 SAC) suffered their first conference loss in the opener, when lefthander Daniel Stewart tossed a complete-game two-hitter in a 3-1 Mars Hill victory.
“He did a great job getting ahead of us,” said Catawba shortstop Chad Hill, the SAC’s leading hitter with a .478 average entering play. “He could throw his curveball for a strike at any time — even when the count was 3-and-1 or 2-and-oh and we were expecting fastballs.”
Stewart, a 6-2 junior, retired the first 10 Catawba batters and 15 of the last 16. He faced only 30 batters — three over the minimum — struck out eight, walked two and recorded 13 groundball outs, yielding only a fourth-inning single by Travis Goins and a fifth-inning homer by Israel Morrow.
“I concentrated on pitching my game and staying down in the (strike) zone,” Stewart said. “I went after them instead of letting them come after me. I threw a lot of curveballs to keep them off-balance and my change-up when I got ahead. That way they couldn’t sit on the fastball.”
Catawba coach Jim Gantt was impressed with Stewart’s pitching savvy. “He controlled both sides of the plate and threw all of his pitches for strikes,” he said. “No matter what the count was, he wasn’t afraid. He pitched, that’s exactly what he did.”
Losing pitcher Brad Esarey, owner of a league- best 1.53 ERA, failed to win his fifth game. He walked five and uncorked four wild pitches in an uneven seven-inning stint.
The loss made Game 2 a must-win situation for Catawba, which has scored only seven runs in its past three games. The Indians took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning when Spence Southard smacked a leadoff homer off hard-throwing freshman Jim Miller. Motsinger followed with a Ruthian blast that cleared the scoreboard in leftcenter.
“I was just looking for something to drive,” he explained. “I try not to think too much at the plate. Especially the way things have been going for me.”
He struck again in the fourth inning, moments after Duke Powell’s two-run homer against winning pitcher Chris Abernathy tied the score. This time Motsinger pulled an inside fastball and launched it over the Salisbury Post sign in leftfield for his third round-tripper of the year. “That pitch was a little bit up but I got my hands through the zone real quick,” he said.
It provided the winning margin for Catawba and Abernathy, who received two innings of tight-rope relief work from senior Chad Secreast. Other players contributed, but if the Indians eventually contend for the conference title, they’ll owe royalties to Motsinger for his late-winter breakout performance.
“We didn’t hit the ball well at all tonight,” said Hill. “But when we saw Curt hitting them out, we knew it could be done.”
n
NOTES: Mars Hill (7-8, 1-3 SAC) sticks around for a 1 p.m. series-finale today at Newman Park. Freshman southpaw Zach Snyder starts for Catawba, winner of nine of its last 11 games. ... Goins, an East Rowan graduate, is hitting .370 and leads the SAC with 28 runs scored.
Today's News